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Tl]e Holy Family. 



PICTORIAL 




m { EVERY DAY \\ THE YEAR. 



COMPILED FROM "BUTLER'S LIVES" AND OTHER APPROVED SOURCES. 
WITH A PREFACE BY 

REV, EDWARD M C GLYNN, D.D.,,- 

Pastor of St. Stephen's Church, New York. ^ 



SECOND EDITION. 



PUBLISHED WITH THE APPROBATION OF HIS EMINENCE THE CARDINAL ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK. 



New York, Cincinnati, and St. Louis; 

BENZIGER BROTHERS, 



PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE. 



1878. 




Imprimatur. 

t JOHN, CARDINAL McCLOSKEY, 

Archbishop of New York. 



Copyright, 1878, by Benziger Brothers. 

LC Control Number 




tm P 96 031449 



Philadelphia, August 6, 1878. 
Your popular Lives of the Saints is well digested and beautifully illustrated. We 
trust it will have a wide circulation. 

Very sincerely and respectfully, your obedient servant in Christ, 

t JAMES F. WOOD, Archbishop of Philadelphia. 

Milwaukee, August 24, 1878. 
Gratefully acknowledging the receipt of an elegant copy of the Pictorial Lives of the Saints, 
we hereby cheerfully approve and recommend the same to every Christian reader. 

With sincere regards, yours, most thankfully, 

t JOHN M. HENNI, Archbishop of Milwaukee. 

Cathedral, Erie, Pa., August 6, 1878. 
I highly approve of your Lives of the Saints, as many Catholics unable to purchase the 
valuable but, to them, expensive work of Alban Butler will find in the book substantially all that 
that eminent writer has collected at so much labor and cost, and thus, at a comparatively small price, 
can secure all that is really worth knowing regarding the Saints of God. 

Yours sincerely, t TOBIAS, Bishop 0/ Erie. 

Chicago, August 7, 1878. 
Your Pictorial Lives of the Saints is a most readable book, full of instruction, well printed 
on fine paper. I hope it may find its way into every Catholic household in the 
land. Very respectfully, t THOMAS FOLEY, Bishop Adm., Chicago 

Ogdensburg, August 8, 1878. 
I have just returned home to receive an elegantly bound copy of the Pictorial Lives of the 
Saints published by your house, with the " Imprimatur" of his Eminence the Archbishop of New 
York. A more attractive work of the kind I have not seen ; and I hope it will be read and 
Circulated among the people. Very sincerely in Christ, 

+ E. P. WADHAMS, Bishop 0/ Ogdensburg. 

Greenbay, August 9, 1878. 
I hereby acknowledge the receipt of the book, Pictorial Lives of the Saints, published by 
you. You may add my name to that of Cardinal McCloskey and other Prelates for approbation. I 

cannot say nor wish any thing better than what Dr. McGlynn says in the preface 

of the work, after having looked it over carefully. 

Yours most respectfully, t F. KRAUTBAUER, Epp. 

St. Paul. August 10, 1878. 
The copy of Pictorial Lives of the Saints which you have been so kind as to send me is a 
book I would wish to see in every household. In this age of materialism the spirit of piety is in 
danger of dying out, and there is hardly a more effective means to preserve it alive and active than 
in keeping before us the example of the lives and the holy maxims of the Saints. Your book is 

well calculated in all its features to attract readers, and in this lies its special merit 
and its claim to our heartiest commendation. 

Respectfully and sincerely yours, t THOMAS L. GRACE, Bishop of St. Paul. 

Columbus, O., August 11, 1878. 
Your Pictorial Lives of the Saints brings in a new era of Catholic enterprise. It is 
admirable. Yours respectfully, t S. H. ROSECRANS, Bishop of Columbus. 



, Cathedral, Scranton, Pa., August 12, 1878. 

Your recent work, Pictorial Lives of the Saints, has been received, for which please accept 
my thanks. The lives are short, practical, and give a sufficient outline of the pilgrimage and trials 
of the Saints on earth. 

I am sure it is a work that will do a great deal of good among the faithful at large, 
and the illustrations will make it particularly acceptable to Catholic youth. 

t WM. O'HARA, Bishop of Scranton. 

Buffalo, August 14, 1878. 
We beg to acknowledge the receipt of your Pictorial Lives of the Saints, for which please 
accept our thanks. 

"We are much pleased with the book, and authorize you to use our name in 
approbation of it, hoping that the bright and attractive volume will entice the public, the young 
particularly, to read about, and then love and imitate, the Saints. 

t S. V. RYAN, Bishop of Buffalo. 



Bishop's House, Louisville, August 15, 1878. 
By making them familiar with the lives of the Martyrs and Confessors of the Church, this book 
seems admirably adapted to the religious instruction of children, and I would therefore earnestly 
recommend its introduction into every Catholic household. 

Your obedient servant, t WM. GEO. McCLOSKEY, Bishop of Louisville. 

Fort Wayne, August 16, 1878. 
The Pictorial Lives of the Saints, by Edward McGlynn, D.D.. will prove to be a very edify 
ng and desirable book in Catholic families, Yours in Christ, 

t JOSEPH DWENGER, Bishop of Fort Wayne. 

St. Cloud, Minn., August 17, 1878. 
These Lives of the Saints are short and to the point, and by their cheapness as well as short- 
ness will enable poor people to buy them and read them, which will hardly be the case with the 
larger editions already published. I have no hesitation to say that they "Will do a great deal 

of good, and have my hearty recommendation. 

+ RUPERT SELDENBUSH, O. S. B., Bishop. 

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, ( 
Leavenworth, Kan., August 18, 1878. f 
Having examined your late publication, the Pictorial Lives of the Saints, which you had 
the kindness to send me, I take great pleasure in recommending ,the work to the public. It supplies 
a want long felt by English-speaking Catholics, as it places within their reach a cheap and popular 
edition of the lives of the Saints. As nothing can more conduce to foster a spirit of piety among 
the faithful than this kind of reading, I trust it will receive a widespread circulation and become a 
household book in every Catholic family, and I will do "what I can to encourage its 
circulation in my diocese. Very truly yours, 

t LOUIS M. FINK. O. S. B., Bishop of Leavenworth. 

Savannah, August 19, 1878. 
Our country is flooded with " dime'' novels, the life and adventures of robbers, pirates, and other 
miscreants, male and female. This poisonous food is presented to the young of our country in a 
most attractive manner. The daily newspapers witness the fearful and unheard of spread and in- 
crease of crime among children who should be clad in the white robe of their baptismal innocence, 
and happily ignorant of such filth. This new work on The Lives of the Saints is therefore a 
style of books which we need. Instead of the lives of adulterers, robbers, and murderers, let the 
dear little ones read the lives of a St. Agnes, a St. Cecilia, a St. Paul, a St. Francis, and the other 
countless heroes and models of beautiful virtue. The incidents which fill to repletion the lives of the 
Saints are as interesting as a novel, and if they are not as attractive to the child, it is owing to the 
want of skill, taste, and judgment on the part of him who attempts to write the lives cf the Saints. 
Your new edition of Lives of the Saints has the merit of brevity — children do not like long 
stories. As far as my rapid glance over them permitted me to judge, they are 
also "Well "Written. I admire especially the engravings. For their fine Catholic tone and artistic 
merit they forcibly remind one of the splendid wood-cuts which ornament the rich Catholic literature 
of Germany. These engravings will render your book particularly attractive, and also instructive to 
the young, though I trust that many older ones may not deem it amiss to read the " Gospel put in 
practice," as ascetics call the lives of the Saints. 

I pray that your new work may be read by many for the greater glory of God and 
the good of souls. t WM. H. GROSS, C.SS.R, Bishop of Savannah. 

Galveston, August 27, 1878. 
I hereby approve of your Pictorial Lives of the Saints, and I hope that a great many 
Catholics will buy this very interesting work, wherein they will find how we all can 
reach heaven in following the example given us by the Saints. 

Yours truly, t C. M. DUBUIS, Bishop of Galveston. 

Peoria, August 22, 1878. 
Please accept my thanks for the handsome copy of your Pictorial Lives of the Saints. The 
plan is good, the compilation well made, and you have published the book in 
admirable Style. It will, I hope, find its way into every Catholic family in the land. 

J. L. SPALDING. Bishop of Peoria. 

Wheeling, September 3, 1878. 
We have received a copy of the Pictorial Lives of the Saints, for which accept our thanks. 
It is a work which will be welcomed by many devout persons who love to study 
the lives and heroic deeds of the Saints, but who have not time to peruse lengthy details. 

Yours truly in Christ, t JOHN J. KAIN, Bishop of Wheeling. 



PREFACE. 



HE utility of reading and pondering the lives of the Saints is sufficiently 
commended by the example of the Saints themselves. What seemed so 
good to their clearer vision must therefore seem good to us, even though we may 
not as readily discern the reasonableness, nor as fully experience the advantages, 
of the practice. Yet the reasons are obvious enough ; and even the briefest casual 
experience cannot fail to confirm them. 

It were too long to even allude to a tithe of the instances of Saints who received 
special impulse to sanctity by considering the example of other Saints, and who, 
in their preaching and writings, commend to us what had proved so salutary to 
themselves. But we may recall, as an illustration, the instance of Saint Augustine, 
who tells us in his Confessions how he was impelled to conversion by the thought 
of the virtues of others more ignorant and less favored in many respects than 
himself, and how he reproached and stimulated himself with the words: "And 
art thou not able to do what these men and these women do?" The well-known 
instance of St. Ignatius of Loyola, is specially pertinent to our present purpose, 
as a proof of the utility of compiling and circulating the Lives of the Saints. 
While recovering from the effects of injuries received in warfare, finding the time, 
tedious, he called for some book of romances, in which he had always taken 
much delight. None such being found, a book of the Lives of the Saints was 
brought to him. He read them first to pass away the time, but afterward began 
to relish them, and spend whole days in reading them ; and, at last, in language 
similar to that of St. Augustine, he said to himself: "These men were of the same 
frame that I am of; why then should I not do what they have done?" This was 
the beginning of his conversion. May we not with reason urge the immense 
benefits to the cause of Christian piety and Christian learning, which have flowed 
from the conversion of these two great men, as a powerful argument in favor of 
the practice which we are commending? 

That such should be the effect of reading the Lives of the Saints, is but a 
natural consequence of the plan after which God has made us. We are creatures 
of the imagination, and, as a matter of experience, are more readily and forcibly 
moved by incidents and images than by abstract truths or theories. This is the 
teaching of the worldly-wise classic pagan poet, who tells us that if we would be 
truly eloquent, we must present truths as if in a picture, because men's minds are 




vi 



PREFACE. 



less easily stirred by what they hear than by what is put before their eyes. In this 
respect we are all but children of greater or less growth, and we are all fonder 
of a story than of a dissertation. Does not our Lord himself commend this truth 
by taking our nature to preach to us by example as well as by word? And do 
we not read : "With many such parables He spoke to them the word, and without 
parable He did not speak unto them?" The sacraments which He instituted, the 
ceremonies of His Church, the use of sacred images and pictures, are all argu- 
ments and illustrations of the same truth. 

What are the lives of the Saints but so many embodiments and reproductions 
of the teachings and examples of Christ? He only is a Saint in whom Christ 
finds this copying of himself carried to the heroic degree, by co-operation with 
His grace ; and the beatification and canonization of Saints by the Church may be 
said to be but an authoritative declaration of the authenticity, fidelity, and accu- 
racy of the portrait. 

In pondering, then, the lives of the Saints, we are but contemplating so many 
illustrations and pictures of the teachings and examples of Christ. What wonder 
that they should move us with a force akin to that with which He swayed the 
hearts of those who saw Him and heard Him? What wonder that we, of the same 
nature as they, should be encouraged by their example to emulate it in becoming 
more Christlike ? 

It is a matter for congratulation that these compendious sketches of the Lives 
of the Saints should be published, and in their present form. While they cannot 
take the place of more copious works, full of instruction and edifying incident, 
yet, by their very cheapness and brevity, they will bring the Lives of the Saints 
nearer to the reach of many of limited means and leisure, while to every one they 
ofter more readily a precious little spiritual nosegay, with which to gladden, to 
sweeten, and to adorn the life of each day in all the year. May God's blessing 
make the little book thus fruitful to thousands of souls. 

Feast of the Ascension, 1878. 



The Movable Feasts. 



OVABLE FEASTS are so called because they have no 
fixed place in the calendar : their celebration happening 
sooner or later, year by year, according as the feast of 
Easter itself occurs at a different period. The latter feast is 
always celebrated on the Sunday which accompanies or follows 
the first full moon after the spring equinox. As the movable 
feasts afford useful lessons, we ought to take them fully to heart. 

ADVENT. 

HE time of Advent cannot exactly be considered festal, nor 
can it be classed among the movable feasts ; and yet the first 
day of Advent is, in another sense, movable, inasmuch as it 
happens always on the fourth Sunday before Christmas — which fes- 
tival itself falls on different days of the week. Advent means com- 
ing, and the four weeks whereof it consists represent the four thou- 
sand years which preceded the coming of the Son of God into this 
world. Formerly, Advent-time was observed by fasting, absti- 
nence, and mortification, but not in a manner so rigorous as 
that of Lent. Notwithstanding the alleviations which the Church 
has thought well to introduce in the course of time, Advent 
has still remained a period of recollection and prayer. The 
true Christian ought to take advantage thereof, and by pious 
yearnings entreat for the coming of the Son of God into his 
heart by grace, and into the world at large by the spreading of the 
Gospel. 

Reflection. — " All the days in which I am now in warfare I 
await until my change come. Thou shalt call me, and I will 
answer Thee." 




8 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 




QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY— THE FORTY HOURS' DEVOTION. 



tUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY is the third day preceding 
Ash Wednesday. That holy season is approaching when 
the Church denies herself her songs of joy in order the more 
forcibly to remind us, her children, that we are living in a Babylon 
of spiritual danger, and to excite us to regain that genuine Chris- 
tian spirit which every thing in the world around us is striving to 
undermine. If we are obliged to take part in the amusements of 
the few days before Lent, let it be with a heart deeply imbued with 
the maxims of the Gospel. But, as a substitute for frivolous 
amusements and dangerous pleasures, the Church oilers a feast 
surpassing all earthly enjoyments, and a means whereby we can 
make some amends to God for the insults offered to His divine 
majesty. The Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world is ex- 
posed upon our altars. On this His throne of mercy He receives 
the homage of those who come to adore Him and acknowledge Him 
for their King ; He accepts the repentance of those who come to tell 
Him how grieved they are at having followed any other Master ; 
and He offers Himself again to His Eternal Father as a propitiation 
for those sinners who yet treat His favors with indifference. It was 
the pious Cardinal Gabriel Paleotti, Archbishop of Bologna, who, 
in the sixteenth century, first originated the admirable devotion 
of the Forty Hours. His object in this solemn exposition of the Most 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



9 



Blessed Sacrament was to offer to the Divine Majesty some com- 
pensation for the sins of man, and, at the very time when the world 
was busiest in deserving His anger, to appease it by the sight of His 
own Son, the Mediator between heaven and earth. Pope Bene- 
dict XIV. granted many indulgences to all the faithful of the 
Papal States who, during these days, should visit Our Lord in this 
mystery of His love, and should pray for the pardon of sinners. 
This favor, at first so restricted, afterward was extended by Pope 
Clement XIII. to the Universal Church. Thus the Forty Hours' 
Devotion has spread throughout the whole world and become one 
of the most solemn expressions of Catholic piety. 

Reflection. — Let us then go apart, for at least one short hour, 
from the dissipation of earthly enjoyments, and, kneeling in the 
presence of our Jesus, merit the grace to keep our hearts innocent 
and detached. 

ASH WEDNESDAY. 

AN, drawn from the dust, must return to it, and all that he 
does meanwhile, with the exception of what good he may 
achieve, is but dust and vanity ; the good alone survives. 
Such are the truths which the Church wishes to engrave in the 
memory, but still more in the hearts of her children, by the sprink- 
ling of ashes on this first day of Lent. This custom dates from 
the first centuries of the Church, and was then observed, not 
toward all the faithful without distinction, but toward public 
sinners who had submitted themselves to canonical penance, to 
obtain thereby reconciliation with the Church and admission 
to a share in the Divine Eucharist. The bishop imposed on 
them the obligation of wearing the hair-shirt and penitent garb, 
placing ashes on their head, and then excluding them from the 
church until the day of Easter. Meanwhile, they had to remain 
humbly prostrate at the church-porch, imploring the prayers of 
those who, more happy than they, might assist at the divine mys- 
teries within the sacred building. The custom of putting ashes on 
the head in token of penitence is even more ancient than Chris- 
tianity ; the Jews practised it, and the holy King David tells us that 
he had submitted to the observance. It may be said rather to date 
from the first ages of the world ; for the holy man Job, long before 
even the time of Moses, followed the custom. Nothing is, in fact, 
more calculated to lead the sinner to enter into himself than the 
remembrance of his last end. Nothing is better fitted, to beat down 
pride and put a check on futile projects and guilty purposes than 



lO 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



the terrible and sad memento, ''Remember that thou art but dust P 
Empires, riches, honors, and dignities, resplendent palaces, tri- 
umphal cars, fair adornments, beauty, strength, and power, all 




crumble away, and their very possessor is but a ruin, and, ere a 
few days have sped, will have dwindled into dust. 

Reflection. — Bear ever in mind, then, men and sinners, that 
tl you are dust, and unto dust you shall return." 



THE FIVE WOUNDS OF OUR LORD. 

E that delight in decking your head with costly and superb 
adornments, who love to cumber your hands with gold and 
precious jewels, who revel in luxury and in soft garments, ap- 
proach and see to what a condition Jesus Christ, your Captain and 
Saviour, is reduced. His head is crowned with thorns and streaming 
with blood, and every base indignity heaped thereon by ruffian 
executioners ; His feet and hands are pierced by nails, His side 
gaping with a wide-open wound. Such are the mournful accents 
uttered by the Church on the first Friday of Lent, two days after 
she has strewed ashes on the heads of the faithful. " For you it 
is," she exclaims, " that the Son of God, the Word made Flesh, 
has undergone these heart-rending affronts, with intent to expiate 




LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



I 1 



your evil-doings, and to teach you that the idol of your body, 
which you deck out with so much care and eager delight, deserves, 
on the contrary, naught but affliction and suffering. How can you, 
while wreathing yourselves with flowers, venture to tread in the 
footsteps of a Master who bears a thorny crown ? And with what 
mind do you propose becoming the disciples of such a Master? 
That forehead, made lustrous with borrowed splendor, those limbs 
delicately clad and brilliantly adorned, will first become the food of 
the grave-worm, and afterward the prey of that fire that quench- 
eth not, if you strive not to bend them down to that lowliness which 
is native to them, to the state of subjection for which they were 
created, and to the penitence they have merited by reason of sin." 




Reflection. — May the contemplation of the wounds of Our 
Saviour engrave deeply in our mind the maxim uttered by His own 
divine lips : " If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, 
take up his cross, and follow me." 



THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD OF OUR LORD JESUS 

CHRIST. 

HE Church, inspired by the Holy Ghost, has established a spe- 
cial feast in honor of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord. 
This saving Blood was first shed at the circumcision of the Di- 
vine Infant ; it was next poured out in the bloody sweat of agony 



12 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



in the Garden of Olives ; again it flowed under the cruel blows of 
the savage soldiery ; then when the crown of thorns was pressed 
into His temples; and finally, when "one of the soldiers with a 
spear opened His side, and there came out blood and water." St. 
Augustine, explaining these words of St. John, points out that 
the Evangelist does not use the words struck or wounded, but says 
distinctly, " one of the soldiers with a spear opened His side," that 
we may understand thereby that the gate of life was opened, and 
from that sacred side issued all those sacraments of the Church, 
without which we can never hope to gain eternal life. This Pre- 




cious Blood was symbolized by the victim of the old law ; but 
while these latter sacrifices served only to purify the outer man, 
the blood of Jesus Christ, by virtue of its infinite efficacy, washed 
us free from all sin, provided we avail ourselves of the means 
established by our Divine Saviour in His Church for the applica- 
tion of its infinite merits. 

Reflection. — Let us haste then to profit by the graces offered 
us. Let us wash away the stains of sin in the Sacrament of Pen- 
ance, and nourish ourselves with the Most Blessed Body and 
Blood of the Holy Eucharist. Let us ever be attentive at Mass, 
where this adorable Blood mystically pours forth again upon the 
altar to plead our cause before the throne of divine justice. 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 




THE SEVEN DOLORS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

ijfe^VE, when placed by the hand of God in a garden of de- 
lights, received but one precept to be obeyed, so as to 
be forever happy — a precept easy of accomplishment, the 
non-observance whereof should needs be inexcusable, inasmuch 
as neither urgent want nor strong inclination led to its vio- 
lation ; there was conjoined, moreover, the assurance of death 
following inevitably upon the transgression of the precept. 
But the serpent, kindling with jealousy and hate, came to 
tempt her. She gazed on the forbidden fruit, gathered there- 
of, and carried it to her husband, and together they ate, in- 
curring the fatal loss, and involving mankind in their down- 
fall. Mary, preceded by the God made Man, went toiling with 
Him up the arid steep of Calvary, in order to accomplish the most 
heart-rending of all sacrifices. Eve had rebelled, Mary surrendered 
her will ; Eve had yielded to the enticing voice of the Tempter ; 
Mary heard the voice of the same demon of jealousy and hate, 
uttering by the mouth of the impious Jews blasphemies and male- 
dictions, but she was not frightened from her purpose. Eve, in 
her disobedience, stretched forth her hand toward the tree of the 
knowledge of good and evil ; Mary, in her submission to the de- 
signs of God, stretches forth hers to the tree of the Cross. Eve 



14 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



had sacrificed to her caprice the spouse through whom she had 
received being ; Mary assists at the sacrifice of the Son to whom 
she has given being. Eve was born of man without the agency 
of a mother; Mary gave birth to the man-God without the inter- 
vention of a spouse. Eve, after her disobedience, became the 
mother, in the order of nature, of a race accursed ; Mary, through 
her submission, lias become, in the order of grace, the mother of 
a race sanctified. 

These points of resemblance and contrast offer themselves 
spontaneously to the mind, provided we ponder somewhat over 
the remembrance celebrated by the Church on the Friday in Holy 
Week, under the title of the " Seven Dolors of the Blessed Vir- 
gin." A mother's heart can alone comprehend the agony of 
torture endured by this mother at the foot of the Cross where- 
on Her Son was immolated ; we do not attempt to describe, nor 
are any mere human lips, indeed, able to express it. 

Reflection. — Let us adore this divine and mysterious abyss 
of charity, in whose depth our salvation was worked out at the 
price of so much suffering ; and let us bear in mind what we 
have cost that mother to whose guardianship we were made over, 
even from the sublime height of the cross. 

THE MOST HOLY CROWN OF THORNS OF OUR LORD 
JESUS CHRIST. 

HE Most Holy Crown of Thorns, consecrated by the head 
and the blood of our Divine Saviour, has always been 
looked upon as one of the most precious of relics. Having 
been carried to Constantinople, it was there carefully kept, during 
the reign of the French Emperors, up to the beginning of the 
thirteenth century. At that time the Emperor, Baldwin II., was 
sorely pressed by the Saracens and Greeks, and considering Con- 
stantinople as no longer secure, he sent the precious relic to his 
cousin, St. Louis, who accepted it with delight. St. Louis, in 
requital, afterward voluntarily paid off a large sum which the 
emperor had borrowed from the Venetians. In 1239, the sacred 
treasure was carried in a sealed case, with great devotion, by holy 
men, to France. St. Louis, accompanied by many prelates and 
his entire court, met it five leagues beyond Sens. The pious king, 
with his brother, Robert of Artois, both barefooted, carried it into 
that city to the cathedral of St. Stephen, accompanied by a nume- 
rous procession. Two years after, it was taken to Paris, where it 




LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



15 




was received with great solemnity, and placed in the Holy Chapel 
which St. Louis built for its reception. Every year, on the nth 
of August, the transfer of this relic from Venice to Paris, is cele- 
brated in the Holy Chapel. 



PALM SUNDAY. 

JT^)ESSONS without end, at once lofty and hallowing, might 
^JLSi be deduced from the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ 
into Jerusalem, celebrated by the Church on this day ; 
we limit ourselves, however, to considering the event under 
one aspect merely, in order to draw therefrom a moral les- 
son for our spiritual instruction. Jesus Christ enters Jeru- 
salem, and the people forthwith improvise a triumph all the 
more noble because it has cost neither blood nor tears, and 
so much the more touching because it is spontaneous. The 
whole town is in commotion, the roadway is strewn with 
branches and covered with the garments of the bystanders, every 
mouth resounding with acclamations, and blessings, and praise. 
Jesus Christ is proclaimed the son of David, the King of the na- 
tion and the Messiah. Ere a few days are sped, the very people 
that had applauded now clamor for His death, curse and insult 
Him, and assist at His degrading death with fiendish cries of 
triumph. 



i6 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



Even thus pass away the glories of the world, its joys, its pos- 
sessions, even life itself. To-day at the height of greatness, to- 
morrow in the deepest abasement; but yesterday the idol of a na- 
tion, to-day the object of its hate ; now surrounded with prosperi- 
ty, and yet a little while, borne down by misfortune ; one day 
full of life and vigor, and the next consigned to the tomb. 

Foolish, then, are they who would account as of any value, or 
would cling to, things perishable ! What bitter awakenings have 




not such poor deluded beings to expect, and what chagrin and 
tearful disappointments do they not create for themselves ! The 
Christian who places the aim of his hopes and the centre of his 
affections at a higher range is both wiser and more happy. Pros- 
perity does not blind nor inebriate him, since he knows it to be 
capricious and changeful ; adverse fortune does not overwhelm 
him, because he was prepared for it and awaited it with calmness. 
The unforeseen alone affords any ground for fear ; and to the 
faithful Christian there is nothing that is unforeseen. 

Reflection. — The recommendation given by the great Apostle 
may be aptly brought to mind : " And they that weep be as though 
they wept not ; and they that rejoice, as they rejoiced not ; and 
they that use this world, as though they used it not ; for the fash- 
ion of this world passeth away." 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



1/ 




MAUNDY THURSDAY. 

N Thursday, the eve of the Passion, Jesus Christ took 
bread, and having blessed it, broke and distributed it 
to His apostles, saying to them, " Take and eat : this 
is my body, which shall be delivered for you." Then taking 
the chalice, He blessed and gave it to them, saying, " Drink 
ye all of this, for this is the chalice of my blood which shall 
be shed for you." He thereafter added, " This do in remem- 
brance of me." These words, in all their precision, simpli- 
city, and clearness, contain the institution of the adorable 
Sacrament of the Eucharist, an irrefragable proof of the Real 
Presence of Jesus Christ in this Sacrament, and the demon- 
stration of His perpetuity in the Church. But rather than indulge 
in reasoning, let us set forth briefly the principal effect. Jesus 
Christ, before instituting it, had said that this sacrament would 
communicate life eternal to those receiving it ; and this, in one 
aspect at least, and so far as it is given to man to understand the 
mysteries of God, is comprehensible. Sin had implanted in man 
the germ of death and vice. By reason of his disobedience man 
had become incapable of good, or even of a holy thought, as the 
great Apostle tells us. Now, in God is the source of being, life, 
good, virtue, and all excellence. God, by communicating Himself 




IS 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



substantially to man by means of this august sacrament, implants 
the germ of immortality and virtue. Man, if limited to his own 
powers, could not even think out a useful way of becoming virtu- 
ous, for whence should he take the principle of virtue and the 
means of putting it in practice ? He would consequently have to 
incur eternal loss, since salvation without virtue is a thing utterly 
impossible. But once pervaded with the principle of grace by an 
intimate union with God, he has but to let it develop and to cul- 
tivate the good seed sown in him. Thus does the diamond, of itself 
colorless and dim, absorb the light when exposed thereto, becom- 
ing a sparkling centre of light, and shining with a radiant lustre. 
The more vivid the light, the more brightly will the diamond shine, 
if it be pure. In like manner, the more man launches himself into 
the Divine substance, the more will he therewith be inundated by 
holy communion ; the more potent also will his life become in 
virtues strong and manifold, and, consequently, in sure claims to 
salvation. 

Reflection. — With what respect, love, and ardor ought we 
not to receive this divine food, " which maketh to live forever " ! 



GOOD FRIDAY. 

AjT:ESUS CHRIST was nailed to the cross about mid-day, ex- 
pired thereon in the afternoon, and was taken down in the 
evening toward sunset, or the sixth hour. According to 
the language of St. Paul, thus did He, by His blood, pacify heaven 
and earth. If this form of expression convey not simply the 
reconciliation of heaven with the earth, it veils a mystery im- 
penetrable to feeble reason. But this very reconciliation is in 
itself the greatest mystery ; for man always vainly tries to explain 
it by recurring to comparisons and considerations of human 
conception merely, which are vastly insufficient, from the fact of 
their being human. And what matters it, after all, whether we 
understand or not so great a mystery ? Enough for us that it 
has produced its effect, and that we are able to adore it in gratitude 
and love. That philosophy should rail at what it does not fathom 
is sheer foolishness. Incredulity may scoff at what it does not 
recognize ; it concerns it, however, to know whether reason be on 
its side. Let heresy explain, after human fashion, things divine ; 
as for us Christians, let us fix our gaze on the Mediator between 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



19 




God and man, raised aloft between heaven and earth, with arms 
outstretching in order to enfold the universe ; with head down 
bent, to give to the world the kiss of peace and reconciliation, 
after having, at the cost of His blood, purchased peace, and let us 
humble our whole being in heartfelt thanksgiving and love. Let 
us reverently imprint our lips on this cross, the instrument of our 
salvation ; let us bend down trembling before the just God, who 
takes such noble revenge for our guilt. By our works let us make 
some return for the price we have cost ; by our penitence and tears 
let us apply to ourselves the merit of His redemption, and hence- 
forth live only for heaven, since we have been made heirs to 
heaven. 

Reflection.— The cross, "to the Jews indeed a stumbling- 
block, and to the Gentiles foolishness," is, withal, the instrument 
of Christ's power and of the wisdom of God. 

HOLY SATURDAY. 

HREE hours after Jesus Christ had uttered His last sigh 
on the cross, two of His disciples, Nicodemus and Joseph 
of Arimathea, went to ask Pilate for the body, that they 
might give it burial. Having obtained it, they embalmed it 
according to the custom of the Jews, and deposited it not 




20 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



far from the place of Calvary, in a tomb hewn in the rock, 
wherein no one had yet been laid. Pilate caused the en- 
trance to be sealed up, and placed a guard over it, lest the 
body should be taken away. The Saviour thus remained 
from nightfall on the Friday till the first rays of dawn on the 
Sunday. He had himself said that He was to pass this time in 
the tomb, and had quoted as an example the abiding of the pro- 
phet Jonas for the same space of time in the whale's belly. It was 
then a real death that was associated with these signs and precau- 




tions, and the sacrifice had been consummated and was irrevocable. 
Wei L might we then marvel at such excess of love, covering our- 
selves with confusion at the thought of how feebly we love Him 
who hath so greatly loved us, and of how little we do for Him 
who hath accomplished so much for us. But we would enter 
upon another consideration. With Jesus Christ died both the 
ancient world with its hideous worship ; the synagogue with 
its symbols and mysteries ; and the man of sin, the old Adam, 
with its concupiscences — yea, even death itself, which had been 
inflicted on man in punishment for sin. With Jesus Christ died 
sin, and sin was placed in the tomb with Him ; for, accord- 
ing to the beautiful expression of the Apostle, the Saviour fas- 
tened the sins of men to the cross. 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



21 



Now the cross itself was buried on the spot where Christ had 
suffered, as was the custom among the Jews, and as was fully 
shown by the finding thereof in conjunction with those of the two 
thieves, three centuries later, by St. Helen ; whence it follows 
that among us Christians, the disciples, that is, of Christ, and re- 
generated by His death, there ought never to lurk any shadow of 
Jewish superstition or pagan morals, any remnant of the old 
Adam or man of sin. Concupiscences, disorderly passions, and 
love of the world should no longer exist but as the memory of a 
time that is no more. 

Reflection. — " For we are buried together with Him by bap- 
tism unto death ; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory 
of His Father, so we also may walk in newness of life. For if 
we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we 
shall be also of His resurrection. Knowing this, that the old man 
is crucified with Him, that the body of sin may be destroyed, and 
that we may serve sin no longer." 



HE resurrection of the dead is one of the most consoling 



truths of Christianity. To die forever would be the most 



terrible of all destinies. The plant and the animal, un- 
endowed with reason, die, never to live again ; but they have 
not at least any apprehension as to what death is. To die 
is to them one of the thousand accidents bound up with life; 
to the plant it is as nothing, and for the animal without rea- 
son, a merely transitory pang, death itself being but the affair 
of a moment. For man, on the contrary, death has terrors 
which precede it, anguish accompanying it, and apprehensions 
consequent upon it. The most strongly-attempered spirit shud- 
ders on reflecting that it must incur death; the most selfish 
man has attachments which he with difficulty severs; the most 
determined unbeliever experiences doubts as to the shadowy 
To-morrow of death. Man would then be the most pitiable among 
all beings were Religion not at hand to say to him, " The grave is 
a place of momentary rest ; you will come forth thence one day. 
The God that gave being to your limbs will restore it ; the resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ gives thereof an assured pledge." 

This confidence in the future resurrection is a subject of the 
greatest joy to the children of God, the groundwork of their 



EASTER SUNDAY. 




22 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



faith, the mainspring of their hope, and most lasting comfort 
amid the evils of this life. For if Christ had not risen, says the 
Apostle St. Paul, in vain should we believe in Him. He would 
be convicted of having been an impostor and His apostles of being 
mad ; His death would not have availed us any thing, and we 
should still be dwelling in the bonds of sin. Those dying in Jesus 
Christ would perish, and our hope in Him not extending beyond 
the present life, we should be the most unfortunate of men, inas- 
much as, after having had as our portion in this life, sufferings 
and afflictions, we should not be able to console ourselves with 




the expectation of future good. But Jesus Christ having come 
forth living from the tomb, His doctrine is confirmed by His resur- 
rection ; it establishes the certitude of His mission in His character 
as Son of God, the efficacy of the sacrifice He offered on the cross, 
the divinity of His priesthood, the rewards of the other life, and 
the glorified resurrection of the flesh. 

Reflection. — We shall one day rise again ; but let us range 
by the side of such a consoling expectation that terrible warning 
of the prophet Daniel, " Many of those that sleep in the dust of 
the earth shall awake, some unto life everlasting, and others unto 
reproach eternal." 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



23 



THE ASCENSION. 

HE mystery which the Church honors on this day is at the 
same time that of the triumph of Jesus Christ and the 
hallowed hope of His disciples. The Saviour, after hav- 
ing accomplished His mission on earth, ascends to heaven to 
put His manhood in possession of the glory due to it, and 
to prepare for us an abiding-place. He ascends thither as 
our King, Liberator, Chief, and Mediator. Our King, because 
He has purchased us at the cost of His blood ; our Liberator, 
because He has conquered death and sin, and has ransomed us 





from the thraldom of Satan ; our Chief, because He wishes that 
we should follow in His footsteps, and that we should be where 
He is, even as He has Himself declared ; our Mediator, because 
we can have access to the Father only through Him. He as- 
cends thither as our High Priest, in order to offer unceasingly 
to God the blood which He has shed for us in His character of 
man, and to obtain for us through the merits of His sacrifice the 
remission of our sins. 

Let us, then, by means of faith, follow Him in His ascension 
to heaven, and abide there henceforth in heart and spirit. Let us 
remember that heaven is wholly ours, as our inheritance; and 
amid the temptations and miseries of this life, let us think often 
of this home of peace, of glory, and bliss eternal. 



24 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



We must not natter ourselves, however, that, without earnest 
efforts on our part, we shall have any share in the kingdom of 
Jesus Christ. There are many mansions in the house of our 
heavenly Father, but there are not many roads leading thither. 
Jesus Christ has traced out for us the way of humiliation and 
suffering, and it is the only one that conducts to eternal peace. 
If the hardships of the journey and the sight of our own weak- 
ness strike us with dread, we should gather energy by leaning on 
the promises of the God-Man. He will be with us even unto the 
end, and if we love Him, all will become easy. 

Reflection. — Let us cherish hope : " Christ being come, a 
High Priest of the good things to come, hath entered into the 
holy of holies, by His own blood having obtained eternal re- 
demption." 



gjMFTY days after Easter, the apostles and disciples of Jesus 



Christ were assembled in an upper chamber, engaged in 



prayer, according to the recommendation of the Divine Mas- 
ter, and awaiting the accomplishment of the promise He had made 
to them, of sending them a Comforting Spirit, the Paraclete, who 
should teach them all things. Lo ! a great noise, as of a rushing 
tempest, was suddenly heard, the house was rocked to and fro, and 
tongues of fire were seen resting on the head of each one. At 
once all were changed into new men, their minds being endowed 
with full understanding of the Scriptures and of the wonders they 
had hitherto witnessed without comprehending, and their souls 
were filled with strength from on high ; thenceforth they belonged 
no more to themselves but to the work of the Gospel. From 
that time forth this Divine Spirit has not ceased to pour itself 
forth upon the Church to enlighten, confirm, protect, and guide; 
it has not ceased communicating itself to each of the faithful 
individually, either by means of the sacraments or by grace, 
whenever it has found hearts well disposed. 

The Fathers of the Church and all theologians are of one 
mind in recognizing, in the workings of the Holy Ghost in the 
hearts of the faithful, seven chief gifts : Wisdom, Understanding, 
Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and the Fear of the Lord. The 
gift of Wisdom helps us to judge healthily of all things concern- 
ing our last end ; the gift of Understanding, to apprehend the 
truths revealed, and to submit our hearts thereto ; the gift of 



WHIT-SUNDAY. 




LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



25 



Counsel, to choose in all things the part best fitted for the sancti- 
fication of our souls ; the gift of Fortitude, to resist temptations 
and overcome dangers ; the gift of Knowledge, to discern the best 
means of sanctifying ourselves ; the gift of Piety, or Godliness, 
causes us to love religion and the practices having reference to 
Divine Worship ; the gift of the Fear of the Lord turns us aside 
from sin and from whatever may displease God. 




Reflection. — " They that are according to the flesh mind the 
things that are of the flesh ; but they that are according to the 
Spirit mind the things that are of the Spirit. For the wisdom of 
the flesh is death ; but the wisdom of the Spirit is life and peace." 



TRINITY SUNDAY. 

HE Holy Trinity is one only God in three Persons, the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, equal in all things 
and co-eternal. The Father gives being to the Son, and 
the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son: the 
most adorable, truly, of all mysteries, and likewise the most 
impenetrable ! St. Anselm has endeavored to explain it from 
a single point of view only, and has accomplished this in a 
masterly yet necessarily insufficient manner. The Father, he 
says, cannot exist a single instant without knowing Him- 




26 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



self, because, in God, to know is to exist, even as to will is 
to act. This knowledge, personified, is "the Word," His Son. 
The Son is, then, co-eternal with the Father. The Father and 
the Son cannot exist a single instant without loving each other ; 
their mutual love is again personified, because in God to love is 
still to exist, God being love itself. This third Person, thus co- 
eternal with the other two Persons, is the Holy Ghost. But the 
inhabitants with God can alone understand these wonders, and 
they understand because they see them. 

The free-thinker, surrounded by the mysteries of nature, and 




who is to himself a complete mystery, is not willing to admit of 
any in religion. " I only wish to believe," he says, " what I under- 
stand !" The poor fool would not believe much were he taken 
at his word. He would neither believe in the food he takes, see- 
ing that he could not explain how it imparts nourishment, nor in 
the light of the sun, since he does not apprehend how it brings 
him into relation with distant objects, nor even in his own argu- 
ments, since he does not comprehend how his mind evokes and 
gives them shape. 

Literally speaking, there exist no mysteries, there are only 
truths ; but truth becomes a mystery to him who does not un- 
derstand it. Writing is a mystery to one who knows not how 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



27 



to read; it ceases to be so to any one who has received instruc- 
tion. According as we educate the soul and widen the measure 
of knowledge, mysteries begin to disappear in proportion ; there- 
fore is it that there are no mysteries in heaven, because the angels 
and the blessed behold with open gaze the objects whereof we 
now possess but the mysterious definition. To deserve to be- 
hold them one day in their heavenly company, one condition is 
requisite, namely, to adore them meanwhile with steadfast and 
perfect faith in the Word of God, which proposes them for our 
belief. In the realms of nature, a mystery is a truth not under- 
stood, which one believes withal because one sees it. In the sphere 
of religion, a mystery is a truth not understood, which one believes 
because God has revealed it. 

Reflection. — Wherefore rebel against the word of God? Is 
it not " as if the clay should rebel against the potter, and the work 
should say to the worker thereof, Thou understandest not?" 

CORPUS CHRISTI. 

ILL the thirteenth century the Church had not thought 
of establishing a special festival in honor of the Blessed 
Sacrament, being satisfied with celebrating on Holy Thurs- 
day the institution of this divine mystery. At that period, 
however, as heresiarchs dared to attack the Real Presence 
of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and numerous miracles and 
special revelations had occurred to concentrate the attention 
of the Christian world on this dogma, Pope Urban IV. de- 
creed, in 1244, that a special feast should be instituted, which, 
by its solemnity and pomp, should be as a protestation in 
favor of the unwavering faith of the Church, and should, at 
the same time, offer an honorable reparation for the blas- 
phemies of impious men. But this pontiff happening to die 
soon after, the Bull had not all the effect intended, and it was 
only after the Council of Vienne, held in 1332, that the feast of 
the Blessed Sacrament, or Corpus Christi, was definitively estab- 
lished throughout the Catholic world. The Holy Council of 
Trent newly approved in a formal and earnest manner both the 
worship itself and its attendant pomp. The Feast of Corpus 
Christi is then a solemn act of faith in the Real Presence of 
Jesus Christ in the Blessed Eucharist; and this belief, to which 
the Church attaches an importance of the highest moment, is the 




28 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



very groundwork of Catholicity, or rather is the very essence of 
all Christianity; for if Jesus Christ be not present really and 
corporeally under the elements of bread and wine, as He has Him- 
self formally told us, His word is no longer reliable, He is no 
longer God, and there remains of religion naught save a beautiful 
but sterile philosophy, which each one can remodel after his own 
mind. If it be allowable, as Protestants contend, to interpret, in a 
purely allegorical sense, words of such clearness that there are 
not, throughout the whole of the Gospel, any more positive or 
precise, it is permissible to interpret every thing at will, and the 




Gospel remains an enigma, the solution whereof is nowhere to 
be found. It is furthermore the intention of the Church to make 
an avowal of her love and gratitude to Jesus Christ, and to offer 
reparation for all the profanations and sacrileges to which this 
adorable sacrament has been exposed. 

Reflection. — O weak-hearted and lukewarm Christians! O 
ye infidels, unbelievers, and heretics of all ages ! " if you did but 
know the gift of God, you would perhaps have asked of Him, and 
He would have given you living water !" 



Lives of the Saints. 



JANUARY i.— THE CIRCUMCISION OF OUR LORD. 

IRCUMCISION was a sacrament of the old law, and the 
first legal observance required by Almighty God of the de- 
scendants of Abraham. It was a sacrament of initiation in 
the service of God, and a promise and engagement to believe and 
act as He had revealed and directed. The law of circumcision 




continued in force until the death of Christ, and our Saviour being 
born under the law, it became Him, who came to teach mankind 
obedience to the law of God, to fulfil all justice, and to submit to 
it. Therefore He was circumcised that He might redeem them that 




30 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 2. 



were under the law, by freeing them from the servitude of it ; and 
that those who were in the condition of servants before might be 
set at liberty, and receive the adoption of sons in baptism, which, by 
Christ's institution, succeeded to circumcision. On the day that 
the divine infant was circumcised, he received the name of Jesus, 
which signifies Saviour, which had been given him by the angel 
before he was conceived. That name, so beautiful, so glorious, 
the divine child does not wish to bear for one moment without 
fulfilling its meaning ; even at the moment of his circumcision he 
showed himself a Saviour by shedding for us that blood, a single 
drop of which is more than sufficient for the ransom and salvation 
of the whole world. 

Reflection. — Let us profit by the circumstance of the new 
year, and of the wonderful renewal wrought in the world by the 
great mystery of this day, to renew in our hearts an increase of 
fervor and of generosity in the service of God. May this year be 
one of fervor and of progress ! It will go by rapidly, like that 
which has just ended. If God permits us to see its end, how glad 
and happy we shall be to have passed it holily. 

JANUARY 2.— ST. FULGENTIUS, BISHOP. 

N spite of family troubles and delicate health, Fulgentius was 
appointed at an early age procurator of his province at Car- 
thage. This success, however, did not satisfy his heart. Levy- 
ing the taxes proved daily more distasteful, and when he was 
twenty-two, St. Austin's treatise on the Psalms decided him to enter 
religion. After six years of peace, his monastery was attacked by 
Arian heretics, and Fulgentius himself driven out destitute to the 
desert. He now sought the solitude of Egypt, but finding that 
country also in schism, he turned his steps to Rome. There the 
splendors of the Imperial Court only told him of the greater 
glory of the Heavenly Jerusalem, and at the first lull in the perse- 
cution he re-sought his African cell. Elected bishop in 508, he was 
summoned forth to face new dangers, and was shortly after ban- 
ished by the Arian king, Thrasimund, with fifty-nine orthodox pre- 
lates, to Sardinia. Though the youngest of the exiles, he was at 
once the mouthpiece of his brethren and the stay of their flocks. 
By his books and letters, which are still extant, he confounded 
both Pelagian and Arian heresiarchs, and confirmed the Catholics 
in Africa and Gaul. An Arian priest betrayed Fulgentius to the 
Numidians, and ordered him to be scourged. This was done. 




JANUARY 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



31 



His hair and beard were plucked out, and he was left naked, his 
body one bleeding sore. Even the Arian bishop was ashamed of 
this brutality, and offered to punish the priest if the Saint would 
prosecute him. But Fulgentius replied, "A Christian must not 
seek revenge in this world. God knows how to right His ser- 
vants' wrongs. If I were to bring the punishment of man on 
that priest, I should lose my own reward with God. And it would 
be a scandal to many little ones that a Catholic and a monk, how- 
ever unworthy he be, should seek redress from an Arian bishop." 
On Thrasimund's death the bishops returned to their flocks, and 
Fulgentius, having re-established discipline in his see, retired to 
an island monastery, where after a year's preparation he died in 
peace in the year 533. 

Reflection. — Each year may bring us fresh changes and trials ; 
let us learn from St. Fulgentius to receive all that 'happens as from 
the hand of God, and appointed for our salvation. 

ST. MACARIUS OF ALEXANDRIA. 

ACARIUS when a youth left his fruit stall at Alexandria 
to join the great St. Antony. The Patriarch, warned by a 
miracle of his disciple's sanctity, named him the heir of his 
virtues. His life was one long conflict with self. " I am tormenting 
my tormentor," replied he to one who met him bent double with a 
basket of sand in the heat of the day. " Whenever I am slothful 
and idle, I am pestered by desires for distant travel." When he 
was quite worn out he returned to his cell. Since sleep at times 
overpowered him, he kept watch for twenty days and nights ; be- 
ing about to faint, he entered his cell and slept, but henceforth 
slept only at will. A gnat stung him, he killed it. In revenge for 
this softness he remained naked in a marsh till his body was cov- 
ered with noxious bites, and he was recognized only by his voice. 
Once when thirsty he received a present of grapes, but passed 
them untouched to a hermit who was toiling in the heat. This 
one gave them to a third, who handed them to a fourth ; thus the 
grapes went the round of the desert, and returned to Macarius, 
who thanked God for his brethren's abstinence. Macarius saw 
demons assailing the hermits at prayer. They put their fingers 
into the mouths of some, and made them yawn. They closed the 
eyes of others, and walked upon them when asleep. They placed 
vain and sensual images before many of the brethren, and then 
mocked those who were captivated by them. None vanquished the 



32 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 3. 




devils effectually save those who by constant vigilance repelled 
them at once. Macarius visited one hermit daily for four months, 
but never could speak to him, as he was always in prayer; so he 
called him an " angel on earth." After being many years Supe- 
rior, Macarius fled in disguise to St. Pachomius, to begin again as 
his novice; but St. Pachomius, instructed by a vision, bade him re- 
turn to his brethren, who loved him as their father. In his old age, 
thinking nature tamed, he determined to spend five days alone in 
prayer. On the third day the cell seemed on fire, and Macarius 
came forth. God permitted this delusion, he said, lest he be en- 
snared by pride. At the age of seventy-three he was driven into 
exile, and brutally outraged by the Arian heretics. He died a. p. 
394- 

Reflection. — Prayer is the breath of the soul. But St. Maca- 
rius teaches us that mind and body must be brought to subjection 
before the soul is free to pray. 

JANUARY 3.— ST. GENEVIEVE, VIRGIN. 

ENEVIEVE was born at Nanterre, near Paris. St. Ger- 
manus, when passing through, specially noticed a little 
shepherdess, and predicted her future sanctity. At seven 
years of age she made a vow of perpetual chastity. After the 
death of her parents, Paris became her abode ; but she often 




JANUARY 3.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 33 

travelled on works of mercy, which, by the gifts of prophecy and 
miracles, she unfailingly performed. At one time she was cruelly 
persecuted ; her enemies, jealous of her power, called her a hypo- 
crite, and tried to drown her ; but St. Germanus, having sent her 
some blessed bread as a token of esteem, the outcry ceased, and ever 
afterwards she was honored as a Saint. During the siege of Paris 
by Childeric, King of the Franks, Genevieve went out with a few 
followers and procured corn for the starving citizens. Never- 
theless Childeric, though a pagan, respected her, and at her 
request spared the lives of many prisoners. By her exhortations 




again, when Attila and his Huns were approaching the city, the 
inhabitants, instead of taking flight, gave themselves to prayer 
and penance, and averted, as she had foretold, the impending 
scourge. Clovis, when converted from paganism by his holy 
wife, St. Clotilda, made Genevieve his constant adviser, and, in 
spite of his violent character, became a generous and Christian 
king. She died within a few weeks of that monarch, in 512, aged 
eighty-nine. 

A pestilence broke out at Paris in 11 29, which in a short time 
swept off 14,000 persons, and, in spite of all human efforts, daily 
added to its victims. At length, on November 26th, the shrine of 
St. Genevieve was carried in solemn procession through the city. 
That same day but three persons died, the rest recovered, and no 



34 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 4. 



others were taken ill. This was but the first of a series of miracu- 
lous favors which the city of Paris has obtained through the relics 
of its patron Saint. 

Reflection. — Genevieve was only a poor peasant girl, but 
Christ dwelt in her heart. She was anointed with His Spirit, and 
with power ; she went about doing good, and God was with her. 

JANUARY 4.— ST. TITUS, BISHOP. 

fITUS was a convert from heathenism, a disciple of St. Paul, 
one of the chosen companions of the Apostle in his journey 
to the Council of Jerusalem, and his fellow-laborer in many 
apostolic missions. From the second epistle which St. Paul sent 
by the hand of Titus to the Corinthians we gain an insight into 
his character, and understand the strong affection which his mas- 
ter bore him. Titus had been commissioned to carry out a two- 
fold office, needing much firmness, discretion, and charity. He 
was to be the bearer of a severe rebuke to the Corinthians, who 
were giving scandal and wavering in their faith ; and at the same 
time he was to put their charity to a further test by calling upon 
them for abundant alms for the church at Jerusalem. St. Paul 
meanwhile anxiously awaited the result. At Troas he writes, 
" I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus, my brother." 
He set sail to Macedonia. Here at last Titus brought the good 
news. His success had been complete. He reported the sorrow, 
the zeal, the generosity of the Corinthians, till the Apostle could 
not contain his joy, and sent back to them his faithful messenger 
with the letter of comfort from which we have quoted. Titus was 
finally left as a bishop in Crete, and here he in turn received the 
epistle which bears his name, and here at last he died in peace. 

The mission of Titus to Corinth shows us how well the dis- 
ciple caught the spirit of his Master. He knew how to be firm 
and to inspire respect. The Corinthians, we are told, " received 
him with fear and trembling." He was patient and painstaking. 
St. Paul u gave thanks to God who had put such carefulness for 
them in the heart of Titus." And these gifts were enhanced by a 
quickness to detect and call out all that was good in others, and 
by a joyousness which overflowed upon the spirit of St. Paul him- 
self, who "abundantly rejoiced in the joy of Titus." 

Reflection. — Saints win their empire over the hearts of men 
by their wide and affectionate sympathy. This was the character- 
istic gift of St. Titus, as it was of St. Paul, St. Francis Xavier, and 
many others. 



JANUARY 5.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 




ST. GREGORY, BISHOP. 

fT. GREGORY was one of the principal senators of Auturi, 
and continued from the death of his wife a widower till the 
age of fifty-seven, at which time, for his singular virtues, he 
was consecrated bishop of Langres, which see he governed with 
admirable prudence and zeal thirty-three years, sanctifying his 
pastoral labors by the most profound humility, assiduous prayer, 
and extraordinary abstinence and mortification. An incredible 
number of infidels were converted by him from idolatry, and 
worldly Christians from their disorders. He died about the be- 
ginning of the year 541, but some days after the Epiphany. Out 
of devotion to St. Benignus, he desired to be buried near that 
saint's tomb at Dijon; this was executed by his virtuous son 
Tetricus, who succeeded him in his bishopric. 



JANUARY 5.— ST. SIMEON STYLITES. 

NE winter's day, about the year 401, the snow lay thick 
around Sisan, a little town in Cilicia. A shepherd boy, who 
could not lead his sheep to the fields on account of the cold, 
went to the church instead, and listened to the eight beatitudes 
which were read that morning. He asked how these blessings 
were to be obtained, and when he was told of the monastic life, a 




36 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 5. 



thirst for perfection arose within him. He became the wonder of 
the world, the great St. Simeon Stylites. He was warned perfec- 
tion would cost him dear, and so it did. A mere child, he began 
the monastic life, and therein passed a dozen years in superhuman 
austerity. He bound a rope round his waist till the flesh was 
putrified. He ate but once in seven days, and when God led him 
to a solitary life, kept fasts of forty days. Thirty-seven years he 
spent on the top of pillars, exposed to heat and cold, day and 
night adoring the majesty of God. Perfection was all in all to St. 




Simeon ; the means nothing, except in so far as God chose them 
for him. The solitaries of Egypt were suspicious of a life so new 
and so strange, and they sent one of their number to bid St. 
Simeon come down from his pillar and return to the common 
life. In a moment the Saint made ready to descend, but the 
Egyptian religious was satisfied with this proof of humility. 
"Stay," he said, "and take courage; your way of life is from 
God." Cheerfulness, humility, and obedience set their seal upon 
the austerities of St. Simeon. The words which God put into his 
mouth brought crowds of heathen to baptism, and of sinners to 
penance. At last, in the year 460, those who watched below 
noticed he had been motionless three whole days. They ascended, 
and found the old man's body still bent in the attitude of prayer, 
but his soul was with God. Extraordinary as the life of St. 



JANUARY 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



37 



Simeon may appear, it teaches us two plain and practical lessons. 
First, we must constantly renew within ourselves an intense desire 
of perfection. Secondly, we must use with fidelity and courage 
the means of perfection God points out. 

Reflection. — St. Augustine says : " This is the business of 
our life ; by effort and by toil, by prayer and supplication, to ad- 
vance in the grace of God, till we come to that height of perfec- 
tion in which with clean hearts we may behold God." 

JANUARY 6.— THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD. 

fHE word Epiphany means " manifestation," and it has 
passed into general acceptance throughout the univer- 
sal Church, from the fact that Jesus Christ manifested 
to the eyes of men His divine mission on this day. First of 




all, when a miraculous star revealed His birth to the kings of 
the East, who, in spite of the difficulties and dangers of a long 
and tedious journey through deserts and mountains almost im- 
passable, hastened at once to Bethlehem to adore Him and to offer 
Him mystical presents, as to the King of kings, to the God of 
heaven and earth, and to a Man withal feeble and mortal. The 
second manifestation was when, going out from the waters of the 
Jordan, after having received baptism from the hands of St. John, 



3-8 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY J. 



the Holy Ghost descended on Him in the visible form of a dove, 
and a voice from heaven was heard, saying : " This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased." The third manifestation was 
that of His divine power when at the marriage-feast of Cana he 
changed the water into wine, at the sight whereof His disciples 
believed in Him. The remembrance of these three great events, 
concurring to the same end, the Church has wished to celebrate in 
one and the same festival. 

Reflection. — Admire the almighty power of this little Child, 
who from His cradle makes known His coming to the shepherds 
and magi — to the shepherds by means of His angel, to the magi 
by a star in the East. Admire the docility of these kings. Jesus 
is born. Behold them at His feet ! Let us be little, let us hide 
ourselves, and the divine strength will be granted to us. Let us 
be docile and quick in following divine inspirations, and we shall 
then become wise of the wisdom of God,- powerful of His 
almighty power. 

JANUARY 7.— ST. LUCIAN, MARTYR. 

T. LUCIAN was born at Samosata, in Syria. Having lost 
his parents in his youth, he distributed all his worldly goods, 
of which he inherited an abundant share, to the poor, and 
withdrew to Edessa, to live near a holy man, named Macarius, 
who imbued his mind with a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, 
and led him to the practice of the Christian virtues. Having be- 
come a priest, his time was divided between the external duties of 
his holy state, the performance of works of charity, and the study 
of sacred literature. He revised the books of the Old and New 
Testament, expunging the errors which had found their way into 
the text either through the negligence of copyists or the malice 
of heretics, thus preparing the way for St. Jerome, who shortly 
after was to give to the world the Latin translation known as 
" The Vulgate." Having been denounced as a Christian, Lucian 
was thrown into prison and condemned to the torture, which was 
protracted for twelve whole days. Some Christians visited him 
in prison, on the feast of the Epiphany, and brought bread and 
wine to him ; while bound and chained down on his back, he 
consecrated the divine mysteries upon his own breast, and com- 
municated the, faithful who were present. He finished his glo- 
rious career in prison, and died with the words, "I am a Chris- 
tian," on his lips. 




JANUARY 8.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 




Reflection. — If we would keep our faith pure, we must study 
its holy truths. We cannot detect falsehood till we know and love 
the truth ; and to us the truth is not an abstraction, but a Person, 
Jesus Christ, God and Man. 



JANUARY 8.— ST. APOLLINARIS, THE APOLOGIST, BISHOP. 

LAUDIUS APOLLINARIS, Bishop of Hierapolis, in Phry- 
gia, was one of the most illustrious prelates of the second 
age. Notwithstanding the great encomiums bestowed on him 
by Eusebius, St. Jerome, Theodoret, and others, but little is known of 
his actions ; and his writings, which then were held in great esteem, 
seem now to be all lost. He wrote many able treatises against the 
heretics, and pointed out, as St. Jerome testifies, from what philo- 
sophical sect each heresy derived its errors. Nothing rendered his 
name so illustrious, however, as his noble apology for the Christian 
religion which he addressed to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, about 
the year 175, soon after the miraculous victory that prince had 
obtained over the Quadi by the prayers of the Christians. St. 
Apollinaris reminded the emperor of the benefit he had received 
from God through the prayers of his Christian subjects, and im- 
plored protection for them against the persecution of the pagans. 
Marcus Aurelius published an edict in which he forbade any one, 



40 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [JANUARY 9. 




under pain of death, -to accuse a Christian on account of his reli- 
gion ; but, by a strange inconsistency, he had not the courage to 
abolish the laws then in force against the Christians, and, as a con- 
sequence, many of them suffered martyrdom, though their accusers 
were also put to death. The date of St. Apollinaris' death is not 
known ; the Roman Martyrology mentions him on the 8th of 
January. 

Reflection. — "Therefore I say unto you, all things whatsoever 
you ask when ye pray, believe that you shall receive : and they 
shall come unto you." 

JANUARY 9.— SS. JULIAN AND BASILISSA, MARTYRS. 

T. JULIAN AND ST. BASILISSA, though married, lived, 
by mutual consent, in perpetual chastity; they sanctified 
themselves by the most perfect exercises of an ascetic 
life, and employed their revenues in relieving the poor and 
the sick. For this purpose they converted their house into a kind 
of hospital, in which they sometimes entertained a thousand poor 
people. Basilissa attended those of her sex, in separate lodgings 
from the men ; these were taken care of by Julian, who from his 
charity is named the Hospitalarian. Egypt, where they lived, had 
then begun to abound with examples of persons who, either in the 




JANUARY 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



41 



cities or in the deserts, devoted themselves to the most perfect 
exercises of charity, penance, and mortification. Basilissa, after 
having stood seven persecutions, died in peace; Julian survived 
her many years and received the crown of a glorious martyrdom, 
together with Celsus, a youth, Antony, a priest, Anastatius, and 
Marcianilla, the mother of Celsus. Many churches and hospitals 
in the East, and especially in the West, bear the name of one or 
other of these martyrs. Four churches at Rome, and three out of 
five at Paris, which bear the name of St. Julian, were originally 
dedicated under the name of St. Julian, the Hospitalarian and 




martyr. In the time of St. Gregory the Great, the skull of St. 
Julian was brought out of the East into France, and given to Queen 
Brunehault ; she gave it to the nunnery which she founded at 
Etampes ; part of it is at present in the monastery of Morigny, near 
Etampes, and part in the church of the regular canonesses of St. 
Basilissa, at Paris. 

Reflection. — God often rewards men for works that are 
pleasing in his sight, by giving them grace and opportunity to do 
other works higher still. St. Augustine said, " I have never seen a 
compassionate and charitable man die a bad death." 



42 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [JANUARY 10. 




JANUARY io.— ST. WILLIAM, ARCHBISHOP. 

irfS^riLLIAM BERRUYER, of the illustrious family of the 
yfiSr ancient Counts of Nevers, was educated by Peter the 
Hermit, Archdeacon of Soissons, his uncle by the mother's 
side. From his infancy William learned to despise the folly and 
emptiness of the world, to abhor its pleasures, and to trem- 
ble at its dangers. His only delight was in exercises of 
piety and in his studies, in which he employed his whole 
time with indefatigable application. He was made canon, first 
of Soissons, and afterwards of Paris; but he soon resolved 
to abandon the world, and retired into the solitude of Grand- 
mont, where he lived with great regularity in that austere 
Order until finally he joined the Cistercians, then in wonderful 
odor of sanctity. After some time he was chosen prior of the 
Abbey of Pontigny, and afterwards became Abbot of Chaalis. On 
the death of Henri de Sully, Archbishop of Bourges, William 
was chosen to succeed him. The announcement of this new dignity 
which had fallen on him overwhelmed him with grief, and he 
would not have accepted the office had not the Pope and his gen- 
eral, the Abbot of Citeaux, commanded him to do so. His first 
care in his new position was to conform his life to the most per- 
fect rules of sanctity. He redoubled all his austerities, saying it 
was incumbent on him now to do penance for others as well as 



JANUARY II.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



43 



for himself. He always wore a hair-shirt under his religious 
habit, and never added to his clothing in winter or diminished it 
in summer; he never ate any flesh-meat, though he had it at his 
table for strangers. When he drew near his end, he was, at his 
request, laid on ashes in his hair-cloth, and in this posture expired 
on the ioth of January, 1209. His body was interred in his cathe- 
dral, and being honored by many miracles, was taken up in 121 7, 
and in the year following, William was canonized by Pope Hono- 
rius III. 

Reflection. — The champions of faith prove the truth of their 
teaching no less by the holiness of their lives than by the force of 
their arguments. Never forget that to convert others we must 
first see to our own souls. 

JANUARY 11.— ST. THEODOSIUS, THE CENOBIARCH. 



HEODOSIUS was born in Cappadocia in 423. The example 
of Abraham urged him to leave his country, and his desire 
to follow Jesus Christ attracted him to the religious life. He 




placed himself under Longinus, a very holy hermit, who sent him 
to govern a monastery near Bethlehem. Unable to bring himself 
to command others, he fled to a cavern, where he lived in penance 



44 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY I2„ 



and prayer. His great charity, however, forbade him to refuse the 
charge of some disciples, who, few at first, became in time a vast, 
number, and Theodosius built a large monastery and three 
churches for them. He became eventually Superior of the religi- 
ous communities of Palestine. Theodosius accommodated him- 
self so carefully to the characters of his subjects, that his reproofs 
were loved rather than dreaded. But once he was obliged to sepa- 
rate from the communion of the others a religious guilty of a grave 
fault. Instead of humbly accepting his sentence, the monk was ar- 
rogant enough to pretend to excommunicate Theodosius in revenge. 
Theodosius thought not of indignation, nor of his own position,, 
but meekly submitted to this false and unjust excommunication. 
This so touched the heart of his disciple that he submitted at once, 
and acknowledged his fault. Theodosius never refused assistance 
to any in poverty or affliction ; on some days the monks laid more 
than a hundred tables for those in want. In times of famine, 
Theodosius forbade the alms to be diminished, and often miracu- 
lously multiplied the provisions. He also built five hospitals, in 
which he lovingly served the sick, while by assiduous spiritual; 
reading he maintained himself in perfect recollection. He suc- 
cessfully opposed the Eutychian heresy in Jerusalem, and for this 
was banished by the emperor. He suffered a long and painful 
malady, and refused to pray to be cured, calling it a salutary 
penance for his former successes. He died at the age of a hund- 
red and six. 

Reflection. — St. Theodosius, for the sake of charity, sacrificed 
all he most prized — his home for the love of God, and his solitude 
for the love of his neighbor. Can ours be true charity if it costs, 
us little or nothing ? 



JX\NE thing thou lackest." In these words, God called Ael- 



red from the court of a royal Saint, David, of Scotland,. 



to the silence of the cloister. He left the king, the com- 
panions of his youth, and a friend most dear to obey the call. The 
conviction that in the world his soul was in danger alone enabled 
him to break such ties. Long afterwards the bitterness of the 
parting remained fresh in his soul, and he declared that, " though 
he had left his dear ones in the body to serve his Lord, his heart 
was ever with them." He entered the Cistercian Order, and even 
there his yearning for sympathy showed itself in a special attrac- 
tion to one among the brethren named Simon. This holy monk 



JANUARY 12.— ST. AELRED, ABBOT. 




JANUARY 12.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 45 

had left the world in his youth, and appeared as one deaf and 
dumb, so absorbed was he in God. One day Aelred, forgetting 
for the moment the rule of perpetual silence, spoke to him. At 
once he prostrated himself at his feet in token of his fault ; but 
Simon's look of pain and displeasure haunted him for many a year, 
and taught him to let no human feeling disturb for one moment 
his union with God. A certain novice once came to Aelred, saying 
that he must return to the world. But Aelred had begged his 
soul of God, and answered, " Brother, ruin not thyself; neverthe- 
less thou canst hot, even though thou wouldst." However, he 




would not listen, and wandered among the hills, thinking all the 
while he was going far from the abbey. At sunset he found him- 
self before a convent strangely like Rieveaux, and so it was. The 
first monk he met was Aelred, who fell on his neck, saying, " Son, 
why hast thou done so with me ? Lo ! I have wept for thee with 
many tears, and I trust in God that, as I have asked of Him, thou 
shalt not perish." The world does not so love its friends. At the 
command of his superiors Aelred composed his great works, the 
Spiritual Friendship and the Mirror of Charity. In the latter he 
says that true love of God is only to be obtained by joining our- 
selves in all things to the Passion of Christ. He died in 1167, 
founder and Abbot of Rieveaux, the most austere monastery in 
England, and Superior of some three hundred monks. 



4 6 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 13. 



Reflection. — When a man has given himself to God, God gives 
back friendship with all His other gifts a hundredfold. Friends are 
then loved no longer for themselves only, but for God, and that 
with a love lively and tender ; for God can easily purify feel- 
ing. It is not feeling, but self-love, which corrupts friendship. 

JANUARY 13.— ST. VERONICA OF MILAN. 

ERONICA'S parents were peasants of a village near Milan. 
From her childhood she toiled hard in the house and the 
field, and accomplished cheerfully every menial task. Grad- 
ually the desire for perfection grew within her ; she became deaf 




to the jokes and songs of her companions, and sometimes, when 
reaping and hoeing, would hide her face and weep. Knowing no 
letters, she began to be anxious about her learning, and rose 
secretly at night to teach herself to read. Our Lady told her that 
other things were necessary, but not this. She showed Veronica 
three mystical letters, which would teach her more than books. 
The first signified purity of intention ; the second, abhorrence of 
murmuring or criticism; the third, daily meditation on the Pas- 
sion. By the first, she learned to begin her daily duties for no 
human motive, but for God alone. By the second, to carry out 
what she had thus begun by attending to her own affairs, never 
judging her neighbor, but praying for those who manifestly erred 



JANUARY 14.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



47 



By the third, she was enabled to forget her own pains and sorrows 
in those of her Lord, and to weep hourly, but silently, over the 
memory of His wrongs. She had constant ecstasies, and saw in 
successive visions the whole life of Jesus, and many other myste- 
ries. Yet, by a special grace, neither her raptures nor her tears 
ever interrupted her labors, which ended only with death. After 
three years' patient waiting, she was received as a lay-sister in the 
convent of St. Martha, at Milan. The community was extremely 
poor, and Veronica's duty was to beg through the city for their 
daily food. Three years after receiving the habit, she was afflicted 
with secret but constant bodily pains, yet never would consent to 
be relieved of any of her labors, or to omit one of her prayers. 
By exact obedience, she became a living copy of the rule, and 
obeyed with a smile the least hint of her Superior. She sought to 
the last the most hard and humbling occupations, and in their 
performance enjoyed some of the highest favors ever granted to 
Saint. She died in 1497, on the day she had foretold, after a six 
months' illness, aged fifty-two years, and in the thirtieth of her 
religious profession. 

Reflection. — When Veronica was urged in sickness to accept 
some exemption from her labors, her one answer was : " I must 
work while I can, while I have time." Dare we, then, waste ours ? 



JANUARY 14.— ST. HILARY OF POITIERS. 

fT. HILARY was a native of Poitiers, in Aquitaine. Born 
and educated a pagan, it was not till near middle age that he 
embraced Christianity, moved thereto mainly by the idea of 
God presented to him in the Holy Scriptures. He soon converted 
his wife and daughter, and separated himself rigidly from all un- 
Catholic company. In the beginning of his conversion, St. Hilary 
would not eat with Jews, or heretics, nor salute them by the way. 
But afterwards, for their sake, he relaxed this severity. He entered 
Holy Orders, and in 353 was chosen bishop of his native city. 
Arianism, under the protection of the Emperor Constantius, was 
just then in the height of its power, and St. Hilary found himself 
called upon to support the orthodox cause in several Gallic coun- 
cils, in which Arian bishops formed an overwhelming majority. 
He was in consequence accused to the emperor, who banished him 
to Phrygia. He spent his three years and more of exile in com- 
posing his great works on the Trinity. In 359 he attended the 



4 8 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [JANUARY 15. 




Council of Seleucia, in which Arians, semi-Arians, and Catholics 
contended for the mastery. With the deputies of the council he 
proceeded to Constantinople, and there so dismayed the heads of 
the Arian party, that they prevailed upon the emperor to let him 
return to Gaul. He traversed Gaul, Italy, and Illyria, wherever 
he came discomfiting the heretics, and procuring the triumph of 
orthodoxy. After seven or eight years of missionary travel he re- 
turned to Poitiers, where he died in peace in 368. 

Reflection. — Like St. Hilary, we, too, are called to a life-long 
contest with heretics ; we shall succeed in proportion as we com- 
bine hatred of heresy with compassion for its victims. 

JANUARY 15.— ST. PAUL, THE FIRST HERMIT. 

T. PAUL was born in Upper Egypt, about the year 230, and 
became an orphan at the age of fifteen, being very rich and 
highly educated. Fearing lest the tortures of a terrible per- 
secution might endanger his perseverance, he retired into a remote 
village. But his pagan brother-in-law denounced him, and St. 
Paul, rather than remain where his faith was in danger, entered 
the barren desert, trusting that God would supply his wants. And 
his confidence was rewarded ; for in the spot to which Providence 




JANUARA' 15.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



49 



led him he found the fruit of the palm-tree for food, and its leaves 
for clothing, and the water of the spring for drink. His first de- 
sign was to return to the world when the persecution was over, 
but tasting great delights in prayer and penance, he remained the 
rest of his life, ninety years, in penance, prayer, and contempla- 
tion. God revealed his existence to St. Antony, who sought him 
for three days. Seeing a thirsty she-wolf run through an opening 
in the rocks, Antony followed her to look for water, and found 
Paul. They knew each other at once, and praised God together. 
When St. Antony visited him, a raven brought him a loaf, and St. 
Paul said, " See how good God is ! For sixty years this bird has 
brought me half a loaf every day ; now thou art come, Christ has 




doubled the provision for His servants." Having passed the 
night in prayer, at dawn of day Paul told Antony he was about 
to die, and asked to be buried in the cloak given to Antony by 
St. Athanasius. Antony hastened to fetch it, and on his way back 
saw Paul rise to heaven in glory. He found his dead body kneel- 
ing as if in prayer, and two lions came and dug his grave. Paul 
died in his one hundred and thirteenth year. 

Reflection. — We shall never repent of having trusted in God, 
for he cannot fail those who lean on him ; nor shall we ever 
trust in ourselves without being deceived. 



5o 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 1 6. 



JANUARY 16.— ST. HONORATUS, ARCHBISHOP. 

fT. HONORATUS was of a consular Roman family, settled 
in Gaul. In his youth he renounced the worship of idols, 
and gained his elder brother, Venantius, to Christ. Con- 
vinced of the hollowness of the things of this world, they wished 
to renounce it with all its pleasures, but a fond, pagan father put 
continual obstacles in their way. At length, taking with them St. 
Caprais, a holy hermit, for their director, they sailed from Mar- 
seilles to Greece, with the intention to live there unknown, in 




some desert. Venantius soon died happily at Methone, and Hon- 
oratus, being also sick, was obliged to return with his conductor. 
He first led an ermetical life in the mountains, near Frejus. Two 
small islands lie in the sea near that coast ; on the smaller, now 
known as St. Honore, our saint settled ; and being followed by 
others, he there founded the famous monastery of Lerins, about 
the year 400. Some of his followers he appointed to live in com- 
munity ; others, who seemed more perfect, in separate cells as 
anchorets. His rule was chiefly borrowed from that of St. Pacho- 
mius. Nothing can be more amiable than the description St. 
Hilary has given of the excellent virtues of this company of 
saints, especially of the charity, concord, humility, compunction, 
and devotion which reigned among them, under the conduct of 



JANUARY I^.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



51 



our holy abbot. He was, by compulsion, consecrated Archbishop 
of Aries in 426, and died, exhausted with austerities and apostolical 
labors, in 429. 

Reflection. — The soul cannot truly serve God while it is in- 
volved in the distractions and pleasures of the world. St. Hon- 
oratus knew this, and chose to be a servant of Christ his Lord. 
Resolve, in whatever state you are, to live absolutely detached 
from the world, and to separate yourself as much as possible 
from it. 

JANUARY 17.— ST. ANTONY, PATRIARCH OF MONKS. 

fT. ANTONY was born in the year 251, in Upper Egypt. 
Hearing at Mass the words, " If thou wilt be perfect, go sell 
what thou hast and give to the poor," he gave away all his 
vast possessions. He then begged an aged hermit to teach him 
the spiritual life. He also visited various solitaries, copying in 
himself the principal virtue of each. To serve God more per- 
fectly, Antony entered the desert and immured himself in a ruin, 




building up the door so that none could enter. Here the devils 
assaulted him most furiously, appearing as various monsters, and 
even wounding him severely ; but his courage never failed, and 
he overcame them all by confidence in God and the sign of the 



52 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY I 8. 



Cross. One night, whilst Antony was in his solitude, many devils 
scourged him so terribly that he lay as if dead. A friend found 
him thus, and believing him dead carried him home. But when 
Antony came to himself he persuaded his friend to carry him, in 
spite of his wounds, back to his solitude. Here, prostrate from 
weakness, he defied the devils, saying, "I fear you not; you can- 
not separate me from the love of Christ." After more vain 
assaults, the devils fled, and Christ appeared to Antony in glory. 
His only food was bread and water, which he never tasted before 
sunset, and sometimes only once in two, three, or four days. He 
wore sackcloth and sheepskin, and he often knelt in prayer from 
sunset to sunrise. Many souls flocked to him for advice, and 
after twenty years of solitude he consented to guide them in holi- 
ness : thus founding the first monastery. His numerous miracles 
attracted such multitudes that he fled again into solitude, where 
he lived by manual labor. He expired peacefully at a very ad- 
vanced age. St. Athanasius, his biographer, says that the mere 
knowledge of how St. Antony lived is a good guide to virtue. 

Reflection. — The more violent were the assaults of tempta- 
tion suffered by St. Antony, the more firmly did he grasp his 
weapons, namely, mortification and prayer. Let us imitate him 
in this if we wish to obtain victories like this. 

JANUARY 18.— ST. PETER'S CHAIR AT ROME. 

T. PETER having triumphed over the devil in the East, pur- 
sued him to Rome in the person of Simon Magus. He who 
had formerly trembled at the voice of a poor maid, now 
feared- not the very throne of idolatry and superstition. The 
capital of the empire of the world, and the centre of impiety, called 
for the zeal of the Prince of Apostles. God had established the 
Roman Empire, and extended its dominion beyond that of any 
former monarchy, for the more easy propagation of His gospel. 
Its metropolis was of the greatest importance for this enterprise. 
St. Peter took that province upon himself, and repairing to Rome, 
there preached the faith, and established his ecclesiastical chair. 
That St. Peter preached in Rome, founded the church there, and 
died there by martyrdom under Nero, are facts the most incon- 
testable by the testimony of all writers of different countries who 
lived near that time; persons of unquestionable veracity, and who 
could not but be informed of the truth in a point so interesting, 




JANUARY 19.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 53 

and of its own nature so public and notorious. This is also at- 
tested by monuments of every kind ; also by the prerogatives, 
rights, and privileges which that church enjoyed from those early 
ages, in consequence of this title. It was an ancient custom ob- 
served by churches, to keep an annual festival of the consecra- 
tion of their bishops. The feast of the Chair of St. Peter is found 
in ancient martyrologies. Christians justly celebrate the found- 
ing of this mother-church, the centre of Catholic communion, in 
thanksgiving to God for His mercies to His Church, and to implore 
His future blessings. 




Reflection. — As one of God's greatest mercies to His Church, 
let us earnestly beg of Him to raise up in it zealous pastors, emi- 
nently replenished with His Spirit, with which He animated His 
apostles. 



JANUARY 19.— ST. CANUTUS, KING, MARTYR. 

T. CANUTUS, King of Denmark, was endowed with excel- 
lent qualities of both mind and body. It is hard to say 
whether he excelled more in courage, or in conduct and skill 
in war; but his singular piety eclipsed all his other endowments. 
He cleared the seas of pirates, and subdued several neighboring 
provinces which infested Denmark with their incursions. The 




54 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 19. 



Kingdom of Denmark was elective till the year 1660, and when the 
father of Canutus died, his eldest brother, Harold, was called to the 
throne. Harold died after reigning for two years, and Canutus 
was chosen to succeed him. He began his reign by a successful 
war against the troublesome, barbarous enemies of the state, and 
by planting the faith in the conquered provinces. Amid the glory 
of his victories, he humbly prostrated himself at the foot of the 
crucifix, laying there his diadem, and offering himself and his 
kingdom to the King of kings. After having provided for the peace 
and safety of his country, he married Eltha, daughter of Robert 




Earl of Flanders, who proved a spouse worthy of him. His next 
concern was to reform abuses at home. For this purpose he en- 
acted severe but necessary laws for the strict administration of 
justice, and repressed the violence and tyranny of the great, with- 
out respect to persons. He countenanced and honored holy men, 
and granted many privileges and immunities to the clergy. His 
charity and tenderness towards his subjects made him study by 
all possible ways to make them a happy people. He showed a 
royal magnificence in building and adorning churches, and gave 
the crown which he wore, of exceeding great value, to a church in his 
capital and place of residence, where the kings of Denmark are 
yet buried. To the virtues which constitute a great king, Canutus 
added those which prove the great saint. A rebellion having 



JANUARY 20.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



55 



sprung up in his kingdom, the king was surprised at church by the 
rebels. Perceiving his danger, he confessed his sins at the foot of 
the altar, and received holy communion. Stretching out his arms 
before the altar, the saint fervently recommended his soul to his 
Creator; in this posture he was struck by a javelin, thrown 
through a window, and fell a victim for Christ's sake. 

Reflection. — The soul of a man is endowed with many noble 
powers, and feels a keen joy in their exercise; but the keenest joy 
we are capable of feeling, consists in prostrating all our powers of 
mind and heart in humblest adoration before the majesty of God. 

JANUARY 20.— ST. SEBASTIAN, MARTYR. 

T. SEBASTIAN was an officer in the Roman army, esteemed 
even by the heathen as a good soldier, and honored by 
the Church ever since as a champion of Jesus Christ. Born 
at Narbonne, Sebastian came to Rome about the year 284, and 




entered the lists with the powers of evil. He found the twin 
brothers, Marcus and Marcellinus, in prison for the faith, and 
when they were near yielding to the entreaties of their rela- 
tives, encouraged them to despise flesh and blood, and to die 
for Christ. God confirmed his words by miracle ; light shone 




5 6 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 21. 



around him while he spoke ; he cured the sick by his prayers ; and 
in this divine strength he led multitudes to the faith, and among 
them the Prefect of Rome, with his son Tiburtius. He saw his 
disciples die before him, and one of them came back from heaven 
to tell him his own end was near. It was in a contest of fervor 
and charity that St. Sebastian found the occasion of martyrdom. 
The Prefect of Rome, after his conversion, retired to his estates 
in Campania, and took a great number of his fellow-converts with 
him to this place of safety. It was a question whether Polycarp 
the priest, or St. Sebastian should accompany the neophytes* Each 
was eager to stay and face the danger at Rome, and at last the 
Pope decided that the Roman Church could not spare the services 
of Sebastian. He continued to labor at the post of danger till he 
was betrayed by a false disciple. He was led before Diocletian, 
and, at the emperor's command, pierced with arrows and left for 
dead. But God raised him up again, and of his own accord he 
went before the emperor, and conjured him to stay the persecution 
of the Church. Again sentenced, he was at last beaten to death by 
clubs, and crowned his labors by the merit of a double martyr- 
dom. 

Reflection. — Your ordinary occupations will give you oppor- 
tunities of laboring for the faith. Ask help from St. Sebastian. 
He was not a priest or a religious, but a soldier. 



JANUARY 21.— ST. AGNES, VIRGIN, MARTYR. 

\§DT. AGNES was but twelve years old when she was led to the 
V«S) altar of Minerva at Rome, and commanded to obey the 
persecuting laws of Diocletian, by offering incense. In the 
midst of the idolatrous rites she raised her hands to Christ, her 
Spouse, and made the sign of the life-giving Cross. She did not 
shrink when she was bound hand and foot, though the gyves 
slipped from her young hands, and the heathens who stood around 
were moved to tears. The bonds were not needed for her, and she 
hastened gladly to the place of her torture. Next, when the 
judge saw that pain had no terrors for her, he inflicted an insult 
worse than death. Her clothes were stripped off, and she had to 
stand in the street before a pagan crowd ; yet even this did not 
daunt her. " Christ," she said, " will guard His own." So it was. 
Christ showed, by a miracle, the value which He sets upon the 
custody of the eyes. Whilst the crowd turned away their eyes 



JANUARY 22.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



57 



from the spouse of Christ, as she stood exposed to view in the 
street, there was one young man who dared to gaze at the inno- 
cent child with immodest eyes. A flash of light struck him blind, 
and his companions bore him away half dead with pain and 
terror. 

Lastly, her fidelity to Christ was proved by flattery and offers 
•of marriage. But she answered, " Christ is my Spouse : He chose 
me first, and His I will be." At length the sentence of death was 
passed. For a moment she stood erect in prayer, and then bowed 

r 




her neck to the sword. At one stroke her head was severed from 
her body, and the angels bore her pure soul to Paradise. 

Reflection. — Her innocence endeared St. Agnes to Christ, as 
it has endeared her to His Church ever since. Even as penitents 
we may imitate this innocence of hers in our own degree. Let us 
strictly guard our eyes, and Christ, when He sees that we keep 
our hearts pure for love of Him, will renew our youth, and give 
us back the years which the canker-worm has wasted. 

JANUARY 22.— ST. VINCENT, MARTYR. 

^j^INCENT was archdeacon of the church at Saragossa. Vale- 
rian, the bishop, had an impediment in his speech ; thus 
Vincent preached in his stead and answered in his name 
when both were brought before Dacian the president, during the 



58 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 22. 



persecution of Diocletian. When the bishop was sent into ban- 
ishment, Vincent remained to suffer and to die. First of all, he 
was stretched on the rack ; and when he was almost torn asunder, 
Dacian the president asked him in mockery "how he fared now." 
Vincent answered, with joy in his face, that he had ever prayed to 
be as he was then. It was in vain that Dacian struck the execu- 
tioners, and goaded them on in their savage work. The martyr's 
flesh was torn with hooks ; he was bound in a chair of red-hot 
iron ; lard and salt were rubbed into his wounds ; and amid all 




this he kept his eyes raised to heaven, and remained unmoved. 
He was cast into a solitary dungeon, with his feet in the stocks ; 
but the angels of Christ illuminated the darkness, and assured 
Vincent that he was near his triumph. His wounds were now 
tended to prepare him for fresh torments, and the faithful were per- 
mitted to gaze on his mangled body. They came in troops, kissed 
the open sores, and carried away as relics cloths dipped in his 
blood. Before the tortures could recommence, the martyr's hour 
came, and he breathed forth his soul in peace. 

Even the dead bodies of the saints are precious in the sight of 
God, and the hand of iniquity cannot touch them. A raven 
guarded the body of Vincent where it lay flung upon the earth. 
When it was sunk out at sea the wave cast it ashore ; and his rel- 
ics are preserved to this day in the Augustinian monastery at Lis- 
bon, for the consolation Of the Church of Christ. 



JANUARY 23.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



59 



Reflection. — Do you wish to be at peace amidst suffering and 
temptation ? Then make it your principal endeavor to grow in 
habits of prayer and in union with Christ. Have confidence in 
Him. He will make you victorious over your spiritual enemies 
and over yourself. He will enlighten your darkness and sweeten 
your sufferings, and in your solitude and desolation He will draw 
nigh to you with His holy angels. 

JANUARY 23.— ST. RAYMUND OF PENNAFORT. 

VjTgftORN a.d. 1 1 75, of a Spanish noble family, Raymund, at the 
j^p) age of twenty, taught philosophy at Barcelona with marvel- 
lous success. Ten years later, his rare abilities won for him 
the degree of Doctor in the University of Bologna, and many high 




dignities. A tender devotion to our Blessed Lady, which had 
grown up with him from childhood, determined him in middle 
life to renounce all his honors and to enter her Order of St. Dom- 
inic. There again a vision of the Mother of Mercy instructed 
him to cooperate with his penitent St. Peter Nolasco, and with 
James, King of Aragon, in founding the Order of Our Lady of 
Ransom for the Redemption of Captives. He began this great 
work by preaching a crusade against the Moors, and rousing to 
penance the Christians, enslaved in both soul and body by the in- 



6o 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 24. 



fidel. King James of Aragon, a man of great qualities, but held 
in bond by a ruling passion, was bidden by the saint to put away 
the cause of his sin. On his delay, Raymund asked for leave to 
depart from Majorca, since he could not live with sin. The king 
refused, and forbade, under pain of death, his conveyance by 
others. Full of faith, Raymund spread his cloak upon the waters, 
and tying one end to his staff as a sail, made the sign of the Cross 
and fearlessly stepped upon it. In six hours he was borne to Bar- 
celona, where, gathering up his cloak dry, he stole into his mon- 
astery. The king, overcome by this miracle, became a sincere 
penitent and the disciple of the Saint till his death. In 1230^ 
Gregory IX. summoned Raymund to Rome, and made him his con- 
fessor and grand penitentiary, and directed him to compile " the 
Decretals," a collection of the scattered decisions of the Popes and 
Councils. Having refused the archbishopric of Tarragona, Ray- 
mund found himself in 1238 chosen third general of his Order; 
which post he again succeeded in resigning, on the score of his 
advanced age. His first act, when set free, was to resume his 
labors among the infidels, and in 1256, Raymund, then eighty-one, 
was able to report that ten thousand Saracens had received bap- 
tism. He died a.d. 1275. 

Reflection. — Ask St. Raymund to protect you from that fear- 
ful servitude, worse than any bodily slavery, which even one sin- 
ful habit tends to form. 

JANUARY 24.— ST. TIMOTHY, BISHOP, MARTYR. 

IMOTHY was a convert of St. Paul. He was born at Lys- 
tra, in Asia Minor. His mother was a Jewess, but his father 
was a pagan ; and though Timothy had read the Scriptures, 
from his childhood, he had not been circumcised as a Jew. On 
the arrival of St. Paul at Lystra the youthful Timothy, with his, 
mother and grandmother, eagerly embraced the faith. Seven 
years later, when the Apostle again visited the country, the boy 
had grown into manhood, while his good heart, his austerities, 
and zeal had won the esteem of all around him ; and holy men 
were prophesying great things of the fervent youth. St. Paul at 
once saw his fitness for the work of an evangelist. Timothy was 
forthwith ordained, and from that time became the constant and 
much beloved fellow-worker of the apostle. In company with 
St. Paul he visited the cities of Asia Minor and Greece; at one 




JANUARY 24.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



6l 



time hastening on in front as a trusted messenger, at another 
lingering behind to confirm in the faith some recently founded 
church. Finally, he was made the first Bishop of Ephesus ; and 
here he received the two Epistles which bear his name, the first 
written from Macedonia and the second from Rome, in which St. 
Paul from his prison gives vent to his longing desire to see his 
"dearly beloved son," if possible, once more before his death. 
St. Timothy himself, not many years after the death of St. Paul, 
won his martyr's crown at Ephesus. As a child Timothy delighted 
in reading the sacred books, and to his last hour he would re- 




member the parting words of his spiritual father, " Attende lectioni 
— Apply thyself to reading." 

Reflection. — St. Paul, in writing to Timothy, a faithful and 
well-tried servant of God, and a bishop now getting on in years, 
addresses him as a child, and seems most anxious about his perse- 
verance in faith and piety. The letters abound in minute personal 
instructions for this end. It is therefore remarkable what great 
stress the apostle lays on the avoiding of idle talk, and on the ap- 
plication to holy reading. These are his chief topics. Over and 
over again he exhorts his son Timothy to " avoid tattlers and busy- 
bodies; to give no heed to novelties; to shun profane and vain 
babblings; but to hold the form of sound words; to be an exam- 
ple in word and conversation ; to attend to reading, to exhorta- 
tion, and to doctrine." 



62 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [JANUARY 25. 



JANUARY 25.— THE CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL. 

tHE great Apostle Paul, named Saul at his circumcision, was 
born at Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, and was by privilege a 
Roman citizen, to which quality a great distinction and sev- 
eral exemptions were granted by the laws of the empire. He was 
early instructed in the strict observance of the Mosaic law, and 
lived up to it in the most scrupulous manner. In his zeal for the 
Jewish law, which he thought the cause of God, he became a vio- 
lent persecutor of the Christians. He was one of those who com- 
bined to murder St. Stephen, and in the violent persecution of the 




faithful, which followed the martyrdom of the holy deacon, Saul 
signalized himself above others. By virtue of the power he had 
received from the high priest, he dragged the Christians out of 
their houses, loaded them with chains and thrust them into prison. 
In the fury of his zeal he applied for a commission to take up all 
Jews at Damascus who confessed Jesus Christ, and bring them 
bound to Jerusalem, that they might serve as examples for the 
others. But God was pleased to show forth in him His patience 
and mercy. While on his way to Damascus, he and his party were 
surrounded by a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, and 
suddenly struck to the ground. And then a voice was heard say- 



JANUARY 26.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



63 



ing, " Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me ?" And Said an- 
swered, " Who art thou. Lord ?" and the voice replied, " I am 
Jesus whom thou dost persecute." This mild expostulation 
of our Redeemer, accompanied with a powerful interior grace, 
cured Saul's pride, assuaged his rage, and wrought at once 
a total change in him. Wherefore, trembling and astonished, 
he cried out, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ?" Our 
Lord ordered him to arise and to proceed on his way to the 
city, where he should be informed of what was expected from him. 
Saul, arising from the ground, found that though his eyes were 
open, he saw nothing. He was led by hand into Damascus, where 
he was lodged in the house of a Jew named Judas. To this house 
came by divine appointment a holy man named Ananias, who, lav- 
ing his hands on Saul, said, " Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who 
appeared to thee on thy journey, hath sent me that thou mayest 
receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." Immedi- 
ately something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he recovered 
his eyesight. Then he arose, and was baptized ; he stayed some 
few days with the disciples at Damascus, and began immediately 
to preach in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God. 
Thus a blasphemer and a persecutor was made an apostle, and 
chosen as one of God's principal instruments in the conversion of 
the world. 

Reflection. — Listen to thew r ordsof the " Imitation of Christ," 
and let them sink into your heart : " He who would keep the grace 
of God, let him be grateful for grace when it is given, and patient 
when it is taken away. Let him pray that it may be given back 
to him, and be careful and humble, lest he lose it." 



JANUARY 26.— ST. POLYCARP, BISHOP, MARTYR. 




T. POLYCARP, Bishop of Smyrna, was a disciple of St. 
John. He wrote to the Philippians, exhorting them to mu- 



tual love and to hatred of heresy. When the apostate 
Marcion met St. Polycarp at Rome, he asked the aged saint if he 
knew him. "Yes," St. Polycarp answered, " I know you for the 
firstborn of Satan." These were the words of a saint most loving 
and most charitable, and specially noted for his compassion to 
sinners. He hated heresy because he loved God and man 
so much. In 167, persecution broke out in Smyrna. When 
Polycarp heard that his pursuers were at the door, he said, 



6 4 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 26. 



"The will of God be done;" and meeting them, he begged 
to be left alone for a little time, which he spent in prayer 
for " the Catholic Church throughout the world." He was 
brought to Smyrna early on Holy Saturday : and as he en- 
tered, a voice was heard from heaven, " Polycarp, be strong." 
When the proconsul besought him to curse Christ and go free, 
Polycarp answered, " Eighty-six years I have served Him, and He 
never did me wrong ; how can I blaspheme my King and Saviour?" 
When he threatened him with fire, Polycarp told him this fire of 
his lasted but a little, while the fire prepared for the wicked lasted 




forever. At the stake he thanked God aloud for letting him 
drink of Christ's chalice. The fire was lighted, but it did him no 
hurt ; so he was stabbed to the heart, and his dead body was burnt. 
" Then," say the writers of the Acts, " we took up the bones, more 
precious than the richest jewels or gold, and deposited them in a 
fitting place, at which may God grant us to assemble with joy to 
celebrate the birthday of the martyr to his life in heaven !" 

Reflection.— If we love Jesus Christ, we shall love the Church 
and hate heresy, which rends His mystical body, and destroys the 
souls for which He died. Like St. Polycarp, we shall maintain 
our constancy in the faith by love of Jesus Christ, who is its 
author and its finisher. 



JANUARY 2/ 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



JANUARY 27.— ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. 



65 



T. JOHN was born at Antioch, in 344. In order to break 



Lth a world which admired and courted him, he 



in 



74 re- 



tired for six years to a neighboring mountain. Having thus 
acquired the art of Christian silence, he returned to Antioch, and 
there labored as priest, until he was ordained Bishop of Constanti- 
nople in 398. The effect of his sermons was everywhere marvellous. 
He was very urgent that his people should frequent the Holy Sacri- 
fice, and in order to remove all excuse he abbreviated the long 
Liturgy until then in use. St. Nilus relates that St. John Chry- 




sostom was wont to see, when the priest began the holy sacrifice, 
" many of the blessed ones coming down from heaven in shining 
garments, and with bare feet, eyes intent, and bowed heads, in 
utter stillness and silence, assisting at the consummation of the 
tremendous mystery." Beloved as he was in Constantinople, his 
denunciations of vice made him numerous enemies. In 403 these 
procured his banishment ; and although he was almost immediately 
recalled, it was not more than a reprieve. In 404 he was banished 
to Cucusus in the deserts of Taurus. In 407 he was wearing out, 
but his enemies were impatient. They hurried him off to Pytius 
on the Euxine, a rough journey of nigh 400 miles. He was assid- 
uously exposed to every hardship, cold, wet, and semi-starvation, 
but nothing could overcome his cheerfulness and his consideration 



66 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 28. 



for others. On the journey his sickness increased, and he was 
warned that his end was nigh. Thereupon, exchanging his travel- 
stained clothes for white garments, he received Viaticum, and 
with his customary words, " Glory be to God for all things, amen," 
passed to Christ. 

Reflection. — We should try to understand that the most pro- 
ductive work in the whole day, both for time and eternity, is that 
involved in hearing Mass. St. John Chrysostom felt this so 
keenly, that he allowed no consideration of venerable usage to 
interfere with the easiness of hearing Mass. 

JANUARY 28. -ST. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA. 

T. CYRIL became Patriarch of Alexandria in 412. Having 
at first thrown himself with ardor into the party politics of 
the place, God called him to a nobler conflict. In 428, Nes- 
torius, Bishop of Constantinople, began to deny the unity of 




Person in Christ, and to refuse to the Blessed Virgin the title of 
" Mother of God." He was strongly supported by disciples and 
friends throughout the East. As the assertion of the divine ma- 
ternity of our Lady was necessary to the integrity of the doctrine 
of the Incarnation, so, with St. Cyril, devotion to the Mother was 




JANUARY 29.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



67 



the necessary complement of his devotion to the Son. St. Cyril, 
after expostulating in vain, accused Nestorius to Pope Celestine. 
The Pope commanded retraction, under pain of separation from 
the Church, and intrusted St. Cyril with the conduct of the pro- 
ceedings. The appointed day, June 7, 431, found Nestorius 
and Cyril at Ephesus, with over 200 Bishops. After waiting 
twelve days in vain for the Syrian Bishops, the Council with Cyril 
tried Nestorius, and deposed him from his see. Upon this the 
Syrians and Nestorians excommunicated St. Cyril, and com- 
plained of him to the emperor as a peace-breaker. Imprisoned 
and threatened with banishment, the saint rejoiced to confess 
Christ by suffering. In time it was recognized that St. Cyril was 
right, and with him the Church triumphed. Forgetting his 
wrongs, and careless of controversial punctilio, Cyril then recon- 
ciled himself with all who would consent to hold the doctrine of 
the Incarnation intact. He died in 444. 

Reflection. — The Incarnation is the mystery of God's dwell- 
ing within us, and therefore should be the dearest object of our 
contemplation. It was the passion of St. Cyril's life : for it he 
underwent toil and persecution, and willingly sacrificed credit and 
friends. 

JANUARY 29.— ST. FRANCIS OF SALES. 

^I^RANCIS was born of noble and pious parents, near An- 
necy, a.d. 1567, and studied with brilliant success at Paris 
and Padua. On his return from Italy he gave up the grand 
career which his father had marked out for him in the service 
of the State, and became a priest. When the Duke of Savoy 
had resolved to restore the Church in the Chablais, Francis offered 
himself for the work, and set out on foot with his Bible and bre- 
viary and one companion, his cousin Louis of Sales. It was a 
work of toil, privation, and danger. Every door and every heart 
were closed against him. He was rejected with insult and threat- 
ened with death. But nothing could daunt or resist him, and ere 
long the Church burst forth into a second spring. It is stated 
that he converted 72,000 Calvinists. He was then compelled by 
the Pope to become Coadjutor Bishop of Geneva, and succeeded 
to the see a.d. 1602. At times the exceeding gentleness with 
which he received heretics and sinners almost scandalized his 
friends, and one of them said to him, " Francis of Sales will 
go to Paradise, of course ; but I am not so sure of the Bishop 
of Geneva : I am almost afraid his gentleness will play him 



68 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 30. 



a shrewd turn." "Ah," said the saint, " I would rather account 
to God for too great gentleness than for too great severity. 
Is not God all love ? God the Father is the Father of mercy ; 
God the Son is a Lamb ; God the Holy Ghost is a Dove, that is, 
gentleness itself. And are you wiser than God?" In union with 
St. Jane Frances of Chantal he founded at Annecy the Order of 
the Visitation, which soon spread over Europe. Though poor, he 
refused provisions and dignities, and even the great see of Paris. 
He died at Avignon, a.d. 1622. 




Reflection. — "You will catch more flies," St. Francis used 
to say, " with a spoonful of honey than with a hundred barrels of 
vinegar. Were there any thing better or fairer on earth than 
gentleness, Jesus Christ would have taught it us ; and yet he has 
given us only two lessons to learn of him — meekness and humility 
of heart." 

JANUARY 30.— ST. BATHILDES, QUEEN. 

T. BATHILDES was an Englishwoman, who was carried 
over whilst yet young into France, and there sold for a 
slave, at a very low price, to Erkenwald, mayor of the 
palace under King Clovis II. When she grew up, her master was 
so much taken with her prudence and virtue, that he placed her 
in charge of his household. The renown of her virtues spread 




JANUARY 30.J LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



69 




through all France, and King Clovis II. took her for his royal 
consort. This unexpected elevation produced no alteration in a 
heart perfectly grounded in humility and the other virtues ; she 
seemed to become even more humble than before. Her new sta- 
tion furnished her the means of being truly a mother to the poor; 
the king gave her the sanction of his royal authority for the pro- 
tection of the Church, the care of the poor, and the furtherance 
of all religious undertakings. The death of her husband left her 
regent of the kingdom. She at once forbade the enslavement of 
Christians, did all in her power to promote piety, and filled France 
with hospitals and religious houses. As soon as her son Clotaire 
was of an age to govern, she withdrew from the world and enter- 
ed the convent of Chelles. Here she seemed entirely to forget her 
worldly dignity, and was to be distinguished from the rest of the 
community only by her extreme humility, her obedience to her 
spiritual superiors, and her devotion to the sick, whom she comfort- 
ed and served with wonderful charity. As she neared her end, 
God visited her with a severe illness, which she bore with Chris- 
tian patience until, on the 30th of January, 680, she yielded up her 
soul in devout prayer. 

Reflection. — In all that we do, let God and his holy will be 
always before our eyes, and our only aim and desire be to please 
him. 



70 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[JANUARY 31. 



JANUARY 31.— ST. MARCELLA, WIDOW. 

^^T. MARCELLA, whom St. Jerome called the glory of the 
wS) Roman women, became a widow in the seventh month af- 
ter her marriage. Having determined to consecrate the re- 
mainder of her days to the service of God, she rejected the hand 
of Cerealis, the consul, uncle of Gallus Caesar, and resolved to 
imitate the lives of the ascetics of the East. She abstained from 
wine and flesh-meat, employed all her time in pious reading, pray- 
er, and visiting the churches, and never spoke with any man alone. 
Her example was followed by many who put themselves under her 




direction, and Rome was in a short time filled with monasteries. 
When the Goths under Alaric plundered Rome in 410, our Saint 
suffered severely at the hands of the barbarian, who cruelly 
scourged her in order to make her reveal the treasures which 
she had long before distributed in charity. She trembled only 
however for the innocence of her dear spiritual daughter, Princi- 
pia, and falling at the feet of the cruel soldiers, she begged with 
many tears, that they would offer no insult to that pure virgin. 
God moved them to compassion, and they conducted our Saint and 
her pupil to the church of St. Paul, to which Alaric had granted 
the right of sanctuary, with that of St Peter. St. Marcella, who 
survived this but a short time, closed her eyes by a happy death, in 
the arms of St. Principia, about the end of August, 410. 



February i.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



/I 



FEBRUARY i.— ST. BRIDGID, ABBESS, AND PATRONESS OF 

IRELAND. 



EXT to the glorious St. Patrick, St. Bridgid, whom we may 



consider his spiritual daughter in Christ, has ever been held 



in singular veneration in Ireland. She was born about the 
year 453, at Fochard in Ulster. During her infancy, her pious 
father saw in a vision men clothed in white garments pouring a 
sacred unguent on her head, thus prefiguring her future sanctity. 
While yet very young, Bridgid consecrated her life to God, be- 
stowed every thing at her disposal on the poor, and was the edifi- 



cation of all who knew her. She was very beautiful, and fearing 
that efforts might be made to induce her to break the vow by 
which she bound herself to God, and to bestow her hand on one 
of her many suitors, she prayed that she might become ugly and 
deformed. Her prayer was heard, for her eye became swollen, 
and her whole countenance so changed that she was allowed to 
follow her vocation in peace, and marriage with her was no more 
thought of. When about twenty years old, our Saint made known 
to Saint Mel, the nephew and disciple of St. Patrick, her intention 
to live only to Jesus Christ, and he consented to receive her sacred 
vows. On the appointed day the solemn ceremony of her profes- 
sion was performed after the manner introduced by St. Patrick, 





72 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [FEBRUARY I. 



the bishop offering up many prayers, and investing Bridgid 
with a snow-white habit, and a cloak of the same color. While 
she bowed her head on this occasion to receive the veil, a miracle 
^<pf a singularly striking and impressive nature occurred ; that part 
of the wooden platform adjoining the altar on which she knelt re- 
covered its original vitality, and put on all its former verdure, re- 
taining it for a long time after. At the same moment Bridgids' 
eye was healed, and she became as beautiful and as lovely as ever. 

Encouraged by her example, several other ladies made their 
vows with her, and in compliance with the wish of the parents of 
her new associates, the Saint agreed to found a religious residence 
for herself and them in the vicinity. A convenient site having 
been fixed upon by the bishop, a convent, the first in Ireland, was 
erected upon it ; and in obedience to the prelate Bridgid assumed 
the superiority. Her reputation for sanctity became greater every 
day ; and in proportion as it was diffused throughout the country 
the number of candidates for admission into the new monastery in- 
creased. The bishops of Ireland, soon perceiving the important 
advantages which their respective dioceses would derive from 
similar foundations, persuaded the- young and saintly abbess to 
visit different parts of the kingdom, and, as an opportunity offered, 
introduce into each one the establishment of her institute. 

While thus engaged in a portion of the province of Connaught, 
a deputation arrived from Leinster to solicit the Saint to take up 
her residence in that territory; but the motives which they urged 
were human, and such could have no weight with Bridgid. It 
was only the prospect of the many spiritual advantages that 
would result from compliance with the request that induced her to 
accede, as she did, to the wishes of those who had petitioned her. 
Taking with her a number of her spiritual daughters, our Saint 
journeyed to Leinster, where they were received with many de- 
monstrations of respect and joy. The site on which Kildare now 
stands appearing to be well adapted for a religious institute, there 
the Saint and her companions took up their abode. To the place 
appropriated for the new foundation some lands were annexed, 
the fruits of which were assigned to the little establishment. This 
donation indeed contributed to supply the wants of the commu- 
nity, but still the pious sisterhood principally depended for their 
maintenance on the liberality of their benefactors. Bridgid con- 
trived, however, out of their small means to relieve the poor of the 
vicinity very considerably ; and when the wants of these indigent 
persons surpassed her slender finances, she hesitated not to sacri- 



February I.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



73 



fice for them the movables of the convent. On one occasion our 
Saint, imitating the burning charity of St. Ambrose and other great 
servants of God, sold some of the sacred vestments that she might 
procure the means of relieving their necessities. She was so hum- 
ble that she sometimes attended the cattle on the land which be- 
longed to her monastery. 

The renown of Bridgid's unbounded charity drew multitudes 
-of the poor to Kildare ; the fame of her piety attracted thither 
many persons anxious to solicit her prayers or to profit by her 
holy example. In course of time the number of these so much 
increased that it became necessary to provide accommodation for 
them in the neighborhood of the new monastery, and thus was 
laid the foundation and origin of the town of Kildare. 

The spiritual exigencies of her community, and of those nu- 
merous strangers who resorted to the vicinity, having suggested to 
our Saint the expediency of having the locality erected into an 
episcopal see, she represented it to the prelates, to whom the con- 
sideration of it rightly belonged. Deeming the proposal just and 
useful, Conlath, a recluse of eminent sanctity, illustrious by the 
great things Avhich God had granted to his prayers, was, at Brid- 
gid's desire, chosen the first bishop of the newly erected diocese. 
In process of time it became the ecclesiastical metropolis of the 
province to which it belonged, probably in consequence of the 
general desire to honor the place in which St. Bridgid had so 
long dwelt. 

After seventy years devoted to the practice of the most sublime 
virtues, corporal infirmities admonished our Saint that the time of 
her dissolution was nigh. It was now half a century since, by her 
holy vows, she had irrevocably consecrated herself to God, and 
during that period great results had been attained ; her holy insti- 
tute having widely diffused itself throughout the Green Isle, and 
greatly advanced the cause of religion in the various districts in 
which it was established. Like a river of peace, its progress was 
steady and silent ; it fertilized every region fortunate enough to 
receive its waters, and caused them to put forth spiritual flowers 
and fruits with all the sweet perfume of evangelical fragrance. 
The remembrance of the glory she had procured to the Most High, 
as well as the services rendered to dear souls ransomed by the 
precious Blood of her divine Spouse, cheered and consoled Brid- 
gid in the infirmities inseparable from old age. Her last illness 
was soothed by the presence of Nennidh, a priest of eminent sanc- 
tity, over whose youth she had watched with pious solicitude, and 



74 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February I. 



who was indebted to her prayers and instructions for his great 
proficiency in sublime perfection. The day on which our abbess 
was to terminate her course, February ist, 523, having arrived, 
she received from the hands of this saintly priest the blessed Body 
and Blood of her Lord in the divine Eucharist, and, as it would 
seem, immediately after her spirit passed forth, and went to pos- 
sess Him in that heavenly country where He is seen face to face and 
enjoyed without danger of ever losing Him. Her body was in- 
terred in the church adjoining her convent, but was some time 
after exhumed, and deposited in a splendid shrine near the high 
altar. 

In the ninth century, the country being desolated by the Danes, 
the remains of St. Bridgid were removed in order to secure them 
from irreverence; and, being transferred to Down-Patrick, were 
deposited in the same grave with those of the glorious St. Patrick. 
Their bodies, together with that of St. Columba, were translated 
afterwards to the cathedral of the same city, but their monument 
was destroyed in the reign of King Henry VIII. The head of 
St. Bridgid is now kept in the church of the Jesuits at Lisbon. 

Reflection. — Outward resemblance to our Lady was St. Brid- 
gid's peculiar privilege; but all are bound to grow like her in in- 
terior purity of heart. This grace St. Bridgid has obtained in a 
wonderful degree for the daughters of her native land, and will 
never fail to procure for all her devout clients. 

ST. IGNATIUS, BISHOP, MARTYR. 

T. IGNATIUS, Bishop of Antioch, was the disciple of St. 
John. When Domitian persecuted the Church, St. Ignatius 
obtained peace for his own flock by fasting and prayer. But 
for his part he desired to sutler with Christ, and to prove himself 
a perfect disciple. In the year 107, Trajan came to Antioch, and 
forced the Christians to choose between apostasy and death. 
" Who art thou, poor devil," the emperor said, when Ignatius was 
brought before him, "who settest our commands at naught?" 
" Call not him 'poor devil,' " Ignatius answered, " who bears God 
within him." And when the emperor questioned him about his 
meaning, Ignatius explained that he bore in his heart Christ cru- 
cified for his sake. Thereupon the emperor condemned him to be 
torn to pieces by wild beasts at Rome. St. Ignatius thanked God, 
who had so honored him, "binding him in the chains of Paul, His 
apostle." 




[February 2. 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



75 




He journeyed to Rome, guarded by soldiers, and with no fear, 
except of losing the martyr's crown. He was devoured by lions 
in the Roman amphitheatre. The wild beasts left nothing of his 
body, except a few bones, which were reverently treasured at An- 
tioch, until their removal to the Church of St. Clement, at Rome, 
in 637. After the martyr's death, several Christians saw him in 

vision standing before Christ, and interceding for them. 

. 

Reflection. — Ask St. Ignatius to obtain for you the grace of 
profiting by all you have to suffer, and rejoicing in it as a means 
of likeness to your crucified Redeemer. 

FEBRUARY 2.— THE PURIFICATION, COMMONLY CALLED 
CANDLEMAS-DAY. 

HE law of God, given by Moses to the Jews, ordained that 
a woman, after child-birth, should continue for a certain 
time in a state which that law calls unclean, during which 
she was not to appear in public, nor presume to touch any thing 
consecrated to God. This term was of forty days upon the birth 
of a son, and double that time for a daughter. On the expiration 
of the term, the mother was to bring to the door of the tabernacle, 
or temple, a lamb and a young pigeon, or turtle-dove, as an offer- 
ing to God. These being sacrificed to Almighty God by the 




;6 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [February 2_ 



priest, the woman was cleansed of the legal impurity and rein- 
stated in her former privileges. 

A young pigeon, or turtle-dove, by way of a sin-offering, was 
required of all, whether rich or poor; but as the expense of a 
lamb might be too great for persons in poor circumstances, they 
were allowed to substitute for it a second dove. 

Our Saviour having been conceived by the Holy Ghost, and His 
blessed Mother remaining always a spotless virgin, it is evident 
that she did not come under the law ; but as the world was, as 
yet, ignorant of her miraculous conception, she submitted with 




great punctuality and exactness to every humbling circumstance 
which the law required. Devotion and zeal to honor God by 
every observance prescribed by His law, prompted Mary to per- 
form this act of religion, though evidently exempt from the pre- 
cept. Being poor herself, she made the offering appointed for 
the poor; but, however mean in itself, it was made with a perfect 
heart, which is what God chiefly regards in all that is offered to 
Him. Besides the law which obliged the mother to purify herself, 
there was another which ordered that the first-born son should be 
offered to God, and that, after its presentation, the child should be 
ransomed with a certain sum of money, and peculiar sacrifices 
offered on the occasion. 



February 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



77 



Mary complies exactly with all these ordinances. She obeys 
not only in the essential points of the law, but has strict regard to 
all the circumstances. She remains forty days at home ; she de- 
nies herself, all this time, the liberty of entering the temple ; she 
partakes not of things sacred ; and on the day of her purification 
she walks several miles to Jerusalem, with the world's Redeemer 
in her arms. She waits for the priest at the gate of the temple, 
makes her offerings of thanksgiving and expiation, presents her 
Divine Son by the hands of the priest to his eternal Father, with 
the most profound humility, adoration, and thanksgiving. She 
then redeems Him with five shekels, as the law appoints, and re- 
ceives Him back again as a sacred charge committed to her special 
care, till the Father shall again demand Him for the full accom- 
plishment of man's redemption. 

The ceremony of this day was closed by a third mystery — the 
meeting in the temple of the holy persons, Simeon and Anne, with 
Jesus and his parents. Holy Simeon, on that occasion, received 
into his arms the object of all his desires and sighs, and praised 
God for being blessed with the happiness of beholding the so- 
much-longed-for Messias. He foretold to Mary her martyrdom of 
sorrow, and that Jesus brought redemption to those who would 
accept of it on the terms it was offered them ; but a heavy judg- 
ment on all infidels who should obstinately reject it, and on Chris- 
tians, also, whose lives were a contradiction to his holy maxims 
and example. Mary, hearing this terrible prediction, did not 
answer one word, felt no agitation of mind from the present, no 
dread for the future ; but courageously and sweetly committed all 
to God's holy will. Anne, also, the prophetess, who in her widow- 
hood served God with great fervor, had the happiness to acknowl- 
edge and adore in this great mystery the Redeemer of the world. 
Simeon, having beheld our Saviour, exclaimed : " Now dismiss 
thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word, because my eyes have 
seen thy salvation." 

This feast is called Candlemas, because the Church blesses the 
candles to be borne in the procession of the day. 

Reflection. — Let us strive to imitate the humility of the ever- 
blessed Mother of God, remembering that humility is the path 
which leads to abiding peace, and brings us near to the consola- 
tions of God. 



73 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February 3. 



FEBRUARY 3.— ST. BLASE, BISHOP AND MARTYR. 

fT. BLASE devoted the earlier years of his life to the study of 
philosophy, and afterwards became a physician. In the 
practice of his profession he saw so much of the miseries of 
life and the hollowness of worldly pleasures, that he resolved to 
spend the rest of his days in the service of God, and from being a 
healer of bodily ailments to become a physician of souls. The 
bishop of Sebaste, in Arminia, having died, our Saint, much to the 
gratification of the inhabitants of that city, was appointed to suc- 
ceed him. St. Blase at once began to instruct his people as much 




by his example as by his words, and the great virtues and sanctity 
of this servant of God was attested by many miracles. From all 
parts the people came flocking to him for the cure of bodily and 
spiritual ills. Agricolaus, Governor of Cappadocia and the lesser 
Armenia, having begun a persecution by order of the Emperor 
Licinius, our Saint was seized and hurried off to prison. Whilst 
on his way there, a distracted mother, whose only child was dying 
of a throat disease, threw herself at the feet of St. Blase and 
implored his intercession. Touched at her grief, the Saint offered 
up his prayers, and the child was cured ; and since that time his aid 
has often been effectuallv solicited in cases of a similar disease. 
Refusing to worship the false gods of the heathens, St. Blase was 



February 4.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



79 



first scourged ; his body was then torn with hooks, and finally he 
was beheaded in the year 316. 

Reflection. — There is no sacrifice which, by the aid of grace, 
human nature is not capable of accomplishing. When St. Paul 
complained to God of the violence of the temptation, God 
answered, " My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made per- 
fect in infirmity." 

FEBRUARY 4.— ST. JANE, OF VALOIS. 

ORN of the blood royal of France, herself a queen, Jane of 
Valois led a life remarkable for its humiliations even in 
the annals of the Saints. Her father, Louis XI., who had 
hoped for a son to succeed him, banished Jane from his palace, 
and, it is said, even attempted her life At the age of five the 
neglected child offered her whole heart to God, and yearned to 
do some special service in honor of His Blessed Mother. At the 
king's wish, though against her own inclination, she was married 
to the Duke of Orleans. Towards an indifferent and unworthy 
husband her conduct was ever most patient and dutiful. Her 
prayers and tears saved him from a traitor's death, and shortened 
the captivity which his rebellion had merited. Still nothing could 
win a heart which was already given to another. When her 
husband ascended the throne as Louis XII., his first act was to 
repudiate by false representations one who through twenty-two 
years of cruel neglect had been his true and loyal wife. At 
the final sentence of separation, the saintly queen exclaimed, 
" God be praised who has allowed this, that I may serve Him 
better than I have heretofore done." Retiring to Bourges, she 
there realized her long-formed desire by founding the Order of 
the Annunciation, in honor of the Mother of God. 

Under the guidance of St. Francis of Paula, the director of 
her childhood, St. Jane was enabled to overcome the serious 
obstacles which even good people raised against the foundation of 
her new Order. In 1501 the rule of the Annunciation was finally 
approved by Alexander VI. The chief aim of the Institute was to 
imitate the ten virtues practised by our Lady in the Mystery of the 
Incarnation, the superioress being called " Ancelle," handmaid, 
in honor of Mary's humility. St. Jane built and endowed the first 
convent of the Order in 1502. She died in heroic sanctity, 
a.d. 1505, and was buried in the royal crown and purple, beneath 
which lay the habit of her Order. 



8o 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February tj. 




Reflection. — During the lifetime of St. Jane, the Angelus was 
established in France. The sound of the Ave thrice each day 
gave her hope in her sorrow, and fostered in her the desire still 
further to honor the Incarnation. How often might we derive 
grace from the same beautiful devotion, so enriched by the Church 
yet neglected by so many Christians ! 



FEBRUARY 5.— ST. AGATHA, VIRGIN, MARTYR. 

T. AGATHA was born in Sicily, of rich and noble parents — 
a child of benediction from the first, for she was promised 
to her parents before her birth, and consecrated from her 
earliest infancy to God. In the midst of dangers and temptations 
she served Christ in purity of body and soul, and she died for the 
love of chastity. Quintanus, who governed Sicily under the Em- 
peror Decius, had heard the rumor of her beauty and wealth, and 
he made the laws against the Christians a pretext for summoning 
her from Palermo to Catania, where he was at the time. " O 
Jesus Christ !" she cried, as she set out on this dreaded journey, 
" all that I am is thine ; preserve me against the tyrant." 

And our Lord did indeed preserve one who had given herself so 
utterly to Him. He kept her pure and undefiled, while she was 
imprisoned for a whole month under charge of an evil woman. 
He gave her strength to reply to the offer of her life and safety, if 



February 5.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



81 



she would but consent to sin, " Christ alone is my life and my sal- 
vation." When Quintanus turned from passion to cruelty, and 
cut off her breasts, Our Lord sent the Prince of His Apostles to 
heal her. And when, after she had been rolled naked upon pot- 
sherds, she asked that her torments might be ended, her Spouse 
heard her prayer, and took her to Himself. 

St. Agatha gave herself without reserve to Jesus Christ ; she 
followed Him in virginal purity, and then looked to Him for pro- 
tection. And down to this day Christ has shown His tender re- 
gard for the very body of St. Agatha. Again and again, during 
the eruption of Mount Etna, the people of Catania have exposed 
her veil for public veneration, and found safety by this means; 
and in modern times, on opening the tomb in which her body lies 
waiting for the resurrection, they beheld the skin still entire, and 
felt the sweet fragrance which issued from this temple of the Holy 
Ghost. 

Reflection. — Purity is a gift of God : we can gain it and pre- 
serve it only by care and diligence in avoiding all that may prove 
an incentive to sin. 

THE MARTYRS OF JAPAN. 

BOUT forty years after St. Francis Xavier's death, a perse- 
cution broke out in Japan, and all Christian rites were 
forbidden under pain of death. A confraternity of martyrs 
was at once formed, the object of which was to die for Christ. 
Even the little children joined it. Peter, a Christian child six 
years old, was awakened early, and told that he was to be behead- 
ed, together with his father. Strong in grace, he expressed his joy 
at the news, dressed himself in his gayest clothing, and took the 
hand of the soldier who was to lead him to death. The headless 
trunk of his father first met his view ; calmly kneeling down, he 
prayed beside the corpse, and, loosening his collar, prepared his 
neck for the stroke. Moved by this touching scene, the execu- 
tioner threw down his sabre and fled. None but a brutal slave 
could be found for the murderous task ; with unskilled and trem- 
bling hand he hacked the child to pieces, who at last died without 
uttering a single cry. Christians were branded with the cross, or 
all but buried alive, while the head and arms were slowly sawn 
off with blunt weapons. The least shudder under their anguish 
was interpreted into apostasy. The obstinate were put to the 
most cruel deaths, but the survivors only envied them. Five 




82 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February 6. 



noblemen were escorted to the stake by 40,000 Christians with 
flowers and lights, singing the Litanies of our Lady as they went. 
In the great martyrdom, at which thousands also assisted, the mar- 
tyrs sent up a flood of melody from the fire, which only died away 
as one after another went to sing the new song in heaven. Later 
on, a more awful doom was invented. The victims were lowered 
into a sulphurous chasm, called the " mouth of hell," near which 
no bird or beast could live. The chief of these, Paul Wiborg, 
whose family had been already massacred for the Faith, was thrice 




let down ; thrice he cried with a loud voice, " Eternal praise be to 
the ever-adorable Sacrament of the Altar." The third time he 
went to his reward. 

Reflection. — If mere children face torture and death with joy 
for Christ, can we begrudge the slight penance He asks us to bear ? 



FEBRUARY 6— ST. DOROTHY, VIRGIN, MARTYR. 

T. DOROTHY was a young virgin, celebrated at Csesarea, 
where she lived, for her angelic virtue. Her parents seem 
to have been martyred before her in the Diocletian persecu- 
tion, and when the Governor Sapricius came to Caesarea, he called 
her before him, and sent this child of martyrs to the home where 
they were waiting for her. 




February 6.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



83 



She was stretched upon the rack, and offered marriage if she 
would consent to sacrifice, or death if she refused. But she 
replied, that "Christ was her only Spouse, and death her desire." 
She was then placed in charge of two women who had fallen 
away from the Faith, in the hope that they might pervert her ; but 
the fire of her own heart rekindled the flame in theirs, and led 
them back to Christ. When she was set once more on the rack, 
Sapricius himself was amazed at the heavenly look she wore, and 




asked her the cause of her joy. "Because," she said, "I have 
brought back two souls to Christ, and because I shall soon be in 
heaven rejoicing with the angels." Her joy grew as she was buf- 
feted in the face, and her sides burnt with plates of red-hot iron. 
" Blessed be Thou," she cried, when she was sentenced to be be- 
headed, — "blessed be Thou, O Thou Lover of souls! who dost 
call me to Paradise, and invitest me to Thy nuptial chamber." 

St. Dorothy suffered in the dead of winter, and it is said that 
on the road to her passion a lawyer called Theophilus, who had 
been used to calumniate and persecute the Christians, asked her, 
in mockery, to send him " apples or roses from the garden of her 
Spouse." The Saint promised to grant his request, and, just before 
she died, a little child stood by her side bearing three apples and 
three roses. She bade him take them to Theophilus, and tell him 
this was the present which he sought from the garden of her 



84 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February 7. 



Spouse. St. Dorothy had gone to heaven, and Theophilus was 
still making merry over his challenge to the Saint, when the child 
entered his room. He saw that the child was an angel in disguise, 
and the fruit and flowers of no earthly growth. He was converted 
to the faith, and then shared in the martyrdom of St. Dorothy. 

Reflection. — Do you wish to be safe in the pleasures and 
happy in the troubles of the world ? Pray for heavenly desires, 
and say with St. Philip, " Paradise, Paradise!" 



FEBRUARY 7.— ST. ROMUALD, ABBOT. 

N 976, Sergius, a nobleman of Ravenna, quarrelled with a rela- 
JJl tion about an estate, and slew him in a duel. His son Romu- 
ald, horrified at his father's crime, entered the Benedictine 
monastery at Classe, to do a forty days' penance for him. This 
penance ended in his own vocation to religion. After three years 
at Classe, Romuald went to live as a hermit near Venice, where 
he was joined by Peter Urseolus, Duke of Venice, and together 
they led a most austere life in the midst of assaults from the evil 
spirits. St. Romuald founded many monasteries, the chief of 
which was that at Camaldoli, a wild desert place, where he built 
a church, which he surrounded with a number of separate cells for 
the solitaries who lived under his rule. His disciples were hence 
called Camaldolese. He is said to have seen here a vision of a 
mystic ladder, and his white-clothed monks ascending by it to 
heaven. Among his first disciples were Sts. Adalbert and Boni- 
face, apostles of Russia, and Sts. John and Benedict of Poland, 
martyrs for the Faith. He was an intimate friend of the Emperor 
St. Henry, and was reverenced and consulted by many great men 
of his time. He once passed seven years in solitude and complete 
silence. In his youth St. Romuald was much troubled by tempta- 
tions of the flesh. To escape them he had recourse to hunting, 
and in the woods first conceived his love for solitude. His father's 
sin, as we have seen, first prompted him to undertake a forty days' 
penance in the monastery, which he forthwith made his home. 
Some bad example of his fellow-monks induced him to leave 
them, and adopt the solitary mode of life. The penance of Urse- 
olus, who had obtained his power wrongfully, brought him his 
first disciple ; the temptations of the devil compelled him to his 
severe life and finally ; the persecutions of others were the occa- 
sion of his settlement at Camaldoli, and the foundation of his 



February S.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



*5 




Order. He died, as he had foretold twenty years before, alone, 
m his monastery of Val Castro, on the 19th of June, 1027. 

Reflection.— St. Romuald's life teaches us that, if we only 
follow the impulses of the Holy Spirit, we shall easily find good 
everywhere, even on the most unlikely occasions. Our own sins, 
the sins of others, their ill-will against us, or our own mistakes 
and misfortunes, are equally capable of leading us, with softened 
hearts, to the feet of God's mercy and love. 

1/ FEBRUARY 8.— ST. JOHN OF MATHA. 

HE life of St. John of Matha was one long course of self- 
sacrifice for the glory of God and the good of his neighbor. 
As a child, his chief delight was serving the poor ; and he 
often told them he had come into the world for no other end but 
to wash their feet. He studied at Paris with such distinction that 
his professors advised him to become a priest, in order that his 
talents might render greater service to others ; and, for this end, 
John gladly sacrificed his high rank and other worldly advantages. 
At his first Mass an angel appeared, clad in white, with a red and 
blue cross on his breast, and his hands reposing on the heads of a 
Christian and a Moorish captive. To ascertain what this signified, 
John repaired to St. Felix of Valois, a holy hermit living near 
Meaux, under whose direction he led a life of extreme penance. 




86 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February 8. 



The angel again appeared ; and they then set out for Rome, to 
learn the will of God from the lips of the Sovereign Pontiff, who 
told them to devote themselves to the redemption of captives. 
For this purpose they founded the Order of the Holy Trinity. 
The Religious fasted every day, and gathering alms throughout 
Europe took them to Barbary, to redeem the Christian slaves. 
They devoted themselves also to the sick and prisoners in all 
countries. The charity of St. John in devoting his life to the re- 




demption of captives was visibly blessed by God. On his second 
return from Tunis he brought back one hundred and twenty liber- 
ated slaves. But the Moors attacked him at sea, overpowered his 
vessel, and doomed it to destruction, with all on board, by taking 
away the rudder and sails, and leaving it to the mercy of the 
winds. St. John tied his cloak to the mast, and prayed, saying, 
" Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered. O Lord, Thou 
wilt save the humble, and wilt bring down the eyes of the proud." 
Suddenly the wind filled the small sail, and, without guidance, 
carried the ship safely in a few days to Ostia, the port of Rome, 
three hundred leagues from Tunis. Worn out by his heroic labors, 
John died in 1213, at the age of fifty-three. 

Reflection. — Let us never forget that our Blessed Lord bade 
us love our neighbor not only as ourselves, but as He loved us, 
who afterward sacrificed Himself for us. 



February 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



87 



FEBRUARY 9.— ST. APOLLONIA AND THE MARTYRS OF 

ALEXANDRIA. 

tT Alexandria, in 249, the mob rose in savage fury against the 
Christians. Metras, an old man, perished first. His eyes 
were pierced with reeds, and he was stoned t death. A 
woman named Quinta was the next victim. She was led to a hea- 
then temple and bidden worship. She replied by cursing the false 
god again and again, and she too was stoned to death. After this 
the houses of the Christians were sacked and plundered. They 
took the spoiling of their goods with all joy. 




St. Apollonia, an aged virgin, was the most famous among the 
martyrs. Her teeth were beaten out ; she was led outside the city ; 
a huge fire was kindled, and she was told she must deny Christ, or 
else be burned alive. She was silent for a while, and then, moved 
by a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, she leapt into the fire 
and died in its flames. The same courage showed itself the next 
year, when Decius became Emperor, and the persecution grew till 
it seemed as if the very elect must fall away. The story of Dios- 
corus illustrates the courage of the Alexandrian Christians, and 
the esteem they had for martyrdom. He was a boy of fifteen. To 
the arguments of the judge he returned wise answers : he was 
proof against torture. His older companions were executed, but 



88 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [February io. 



Dioscorus was spared on account of his tender years ; yet the 
Christians could not bear to think that he had been deprived of 
the martyr's crown, except to receive it afterward more gloriously. 
" Dioscorus," writes Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria at this time, 
" remains with us, reserved for some longer and greater combat." 
There were indeed many Christians who came, pale and trembling, 
to offer the heathen sacrifices. But the judges themselves were 
struck with horror at the multitudes who rushed to martyrdom. 
Women triumphed over torture, till at last the judges were glad to 
execute them at once, and put an end to the ignominy of their 
own defeat. 

Reflection. — Many Saints, who were not martyrs, have longed 
to shed their blood for Christ. We, too, may pray for some por- 
tion of their spirit ; and the least suffering for the Faith, borne 
with humility and courage, is the proof that Christ has heard our 
prayer. 

FEBRUARY 10.— ST. SCHOLASTICA, ABBESS. 

F this Saint but little is known on earth, save that she was 
the sister of the great patriarch St. Benedict, and that, under 
his direction, she founded and governed a numerous com- 
munity near Monte Cassino. St. Gregory sums up her life by say- 
ing that she devoted herself to God from her childhood, and that 
her pure soul went to God in the likeness of a dove, as if to show 
that her life had been enriched with the fullest gifts of the Holy 
Spirit. Her brother was accustomed to visit her every year, for 
" she could not be sated or wearied with the words of grace which 
flowed from his lips." On his last visit, after a day passed in 
spiritual converse, the Saint, knowing that her end was near, said, 
" My brother, leave me not, I pray you, this night, but discourse 
with me till dawn on the bliss of those who see God in heaven.' * ' % 
St. Benedict would not break his rule at the bidding of natural 
affection ; and then the Saint bowed her head on her hands and 
prayed ; and there arose a storm so violent that St. Benedict could 
not return to his monastery, and they passed the night in heavenly 
conversation. Three days later St. Benedict saw in a vision the 
soul of his sister going up in the likeness of a dove into heaven. 
Then he gave thanks to God for the graces He had given her, and 
for the glory which had crowned them. When she died, St. Bene- 
dict, her spiritual daughters, and the monks sent by St. Benedict, 





mingled their tears and prayed, " Alas ! alas ! dearest mother, to 
whom dost thou leave us now ? Pray for us to Jesus, to whom 
thou art gone." They then devoutly celebrated Holy Mass, " com- 
mending her soul to God ;" and her body was borne to Monte 
Cassino, and laid by her brother in the tomb he had prepared for 
himself. " And they bewailed her many days ;" and St. Benedict 
said, " Weep not, sisters and brothers ; for assuredly Jesus has 
taken her before us to be our aid and defence against all our 
enemies, that we may stand in the evil day, and be in all things 
perfect." She died about the year 543. 

Reflection. — Our relations must be loved in and for God. 
Otherwise the purest affection becomes inordinate, and is so much 
taken from Him. 

FEBRUARY 11.— ST. SEVERINUS, ABBOT OF AGAUNUM. 

T. SEVERINUS, of a noble family in Burgundy, was edu- 
cated in the Catholic faith, at a time when the Arian heresy 
reigned in that country. He forsook the world in his youth, 
and dedicated himself to God in the monastery of Agaunum, which 
then only consisted of scattered cells, till the Catholic king Sigis- 
mund built there the great abbey of St. Maurice. St. Severinus 
was the holy abbot of that place, and had governed his community 



9 o 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February i i. 



many years in the exercise of penance and charity, when, in 504. 
Clovis, the first Christian king of France, lying ill of a fever, 
which his physicians had for two years ineffectually endeavored to 
remove, sent his chamberlain to conduct the Saint to court ; for it 
was said that the sick from all parts recovered their health by his 
prayers. St. Severinus took leave of his monks, telling them he 
should never see them more in this world. On his journey he 
healed Eulalius, bishop of Nevers, who had been for some time deaf 
and dumb, also a leper, at the gates of Paris ; and coming to the pal- 
ace he immediately restored the king to perfect health, by putting 




on him his own cloak. The king, in gratitude, distributed large alms 
to the poor, and released all his prisoners. St. Severinus, return- 
ing toward Agaunum, stopped at Chateau-Landon, in Gatinois, 
where two priests served God in a solitary chapel, among whom 
he was admitted, at his request, as a stranger, and was soon greatly 
admired by them for his sanctity. He foresaw his death, which 
happened shortly after, in 507. The place is now an abbey of re- 
formed canons regular of St. Austin. The Huguenots scattered the 
greatest part of his relics when they plundered this church. 

Reflection. — God loads with His favor those who delight in 
exercising mercy. "According to thy ability be merciful ; if thou 
hast much, give abundantly; if thou hast little, take care even so 
to bestow willingly- a little." 



February 12.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



91 



FEBRUARY 12.— ST. BENEDICT OF ANIAN. 

&gj)ENEDiCT was the son of Aigulf, Governor of Languedoc, 
ip§) and was born about 750. In his early youth he served as 
cupbearer to King Pepin and his son Charlemagne, enjoying 
under them great honors and possessions. Grace entered his soul 
at the age of twenty, and he resolved to seek the kingdom of God 
with his whole heart. Without relinquishing his place at court, 
he lived there a most mortified life for three years ; then a narrow 
escape from drowning made him vow to quit the world, and he 
entered the cloister of St. Seine. In reward for his heroic austeri- 




ties in the monastic state, God bestowed upon him the gift of tears, 
and inspired him with a knowledge of spiritual things. As pro- 
curator, he was most careful of the wants of the brethren, and 
most hospitable to the poor and to guests. Declining to accept the 
abbacy, he built himself a little hermitage on the brook Anian, 
and lived some years in great solitude and poverty. But the fame 
of his sanctity drawing many souls around him, he was obliged to 
build a large abbey, and within a short time governed three hun- 
dred monks. He became the great restorer of monastic discipline 
throughout France and Germany. First, he drew up with immense 
labor a code of the rules of St. Benedict, his great namesake, which 
he collated with those of the chief monastic founders, showing the 
uniformity of the exercises in each, and enforced by his " Peni- 



9 2 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February 13. 



tential " their exact observance ; secondly, he minutely regulated 
all matters regarding food, clothing, and every detail of life ; and 
thirdly, by prescribing the same for all, he excluded jealousies and 
insured perfect charity. In a Provincial Council held in 813, 
under Charlemagne, at which he was present, it was declared that 
all monks of the West should adopt the rule of St. Benedict. He 
died February 11, 821. 

Reflection. — The decay of monastic discipline, and its resto- 
ration by St. Benedict, prove that none are safe from loss of fervor, 
but that all can regain it by fidelity to grace. 

FEBRUARY 13.— ST. CATHERINE OF RICCI. 

tLEXANDRINA of Ricci was the daughter of a noble Flor- 
entine. At the age of thirteen she entered the third Order 
of St. Dominic in the monastery of Prato, taking in religion 
the name of Catherine, after her patron and namesake of Siena. 
Her special attraction was to the Passion of Christ, in which she 
was permitted miraculously to participate. In the Lent of 1541, 
being then twenty-one years of age, she had a vision of the Cruci- 
fixion so heartrending, that she was confined to bed for three 
weeks, and was only restored, on Holy Saturday, by an apparition 
of St. Mary Magdalen and Jesus risen. During twelve years she 
passed every Friday in ecstasy. She received the sacred stigmata, 
the wound in the left side, and the crown of thorns. All these 
favors gave her continual and intense suffering, and inspired her 
with a loving sympathy for the yet more bitter tortures of the 
Holy Souls. In their behalf she offered all her prayers and pen- 
ances ; and her charity toward them became so famous throughout 
Tuscany, that after every death the friends of the deceased hastened 
to Catherine to secure her prayers. St. Catherine offered many 
prayers, fasts, and penances for a certain great man, and thus ob- 
tained his salvation. It was revealed to her that he was in Purga- 
tory ; and such was her love of Jesus crucified, that she offered to 
suffer all the pains about to be inflicted on that soul. Her prayer 
was granted. The soul entered heaven, and for forty days Cathe- 
rine suffered indescribable agonies. Her body was covered with 
blisters, emitting heat so great that her cell seemed on fire. Her 
flesh appeared as if roasted, and her tongue like red-hot iron. 
Amid all she was calm and joyful, saying, "I long to suffer all 
imaginable pains, that souls may quickly see and praise their 



February 14.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 93 




Redeemer." She knew by revelation the arrival of a soul in 
Purgatory, and the hour of its release. She held intercourse with 
the Saints in glory, and frequently conversed with St. Philip Neri 
at Rome without ever leaving her convent at Prato. She died, 
amid angels songs, in 1589. 



Reflection. — If we truly love Jesus crucified, we must long, 
like St. Catherine, to release the Holy Souls whom He has re- 
deemed, but has left to our charity to set free. 

FEBRUARY 14.— ST. VALENTINE, PRIEST AND MARTYR. 

ALENTINE was a holy priest in Rome, who, with St 
Marius and his family, assisted the martyrs in the persecu- 
tion under Claudius II. He was apprehended, and sent . by 
the emperor to the prefect of Rome, who, on finding all his pro- 
mises to make him renounce his faith ineffectual, commanded him 
to be beaten with clubs, and afterward to be beheaded, which was 
executed on the 14th of February, about the year 270. Pope Julius 
I. is said to have built a church near Ponte Mole to his memory, 
which for a long time gave name to the gate, now called Porta del 
Popolo, formerly Porta Valentini. The greatest part of his relics 
are now in the church of St. Praxedes. To abolish the heathen's 




94 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [February 15, 



lewd superstitious custom of boys drawing the names of girls, in 
honor of their goddess Februata Juno, on the 15th of this months 
several zealous pastors substituted the names of Saints in billets 
given on this day. 




Reflection. — In the cause of justice and truth, prudence should 
not be held in account ; otherwise prudence is mere human respect- 
St. Paul says : " The wisdom of the flesh is death." 



FEBRUARY 15.— STS. FAUSTINUS AND JOVITA, MARTYRS. 



''jp^ AUSTIN US and Jovita were brothers, nobly born, and zeal- 
ous professors of the Christian religion, which they preach- 
ed without fear in their city of Brescia, while the bishop of 
that place lay concealed during the persecution. Their remarkable 
zeal excited the fury of the heathens against them, and procured 
them a glorious death for their faith at Brescia, in Lombardy, under 
the Emperor Adrian. Julian, a heathen lord, apprehended them ; 
and the emperor himself, passing through Brescia, when neither 
threats nor torments could shake their constancy, commanded them 
to be beheaded. They seem to have suffered about the year 121. 
The city of Brescia honors them as its chief patrons, possesses their 
relics, and a very ancient church in that city bears their names. 



February 16.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



95 




Reflection. — The spirit of Christ is a spirit of martyrdom — at 
least of mortification and penance. It is always the spirit of 
the cross. The more we share in the suffering life of Christ, the 
greater share we inherit in His spirit, and in the fruit of His death. 
To souls mortified to their senses and disengaged from earthly 
things, God gives frequent foretastes of the sweetness of eternal 
life, and the most ardent desires of possessing Him in His glory. 
This is the spirit of martyrdom, which entitles a Christian to a 
happy resurrection and to the bliss of the life to come. 

is 

FEBRUARY 16.— BLESSED JOHN DE BRITTO, MARTYR. 

3§\ ON PEDRO II. of Portugal, when a child, had among his 
little pages a modest boy of rich and princely parents. 
Much had John de Britto — for so was he called — to bear 
from his careless-living companions, to whom his holy life was a 
reproach. A terrible illness made him turn for aid to St. Francis 
Xavier, a Saint so well loved by the Portuguese ; and when, in an- 
swer to his prayers, he recovered, his mother vested him for a 
year in the dress worn in those days by the Jesuit Fathers. From 
that time John's heart burned to follow the example of the Apos- 
tle of the Indies. He gained his double wish. On December 17, 
1662, he entered the novitiate of the Society at Lisbon ; and eleven 



96 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February 16. 



years later, in spite of the most determined opposition of his fam- 
ily and of the court, he left all to go to convert the Hindoos of Ma- 
dura. When Blessed John's mother knew that her son was going 
to the Indies, she used all her influence to prevent him leaving his 
own country, and persuaded the Papal Nuncio to interfere. " God, 
who called me from the world into religious life, now calls me 
from Portugal to India," was the reply of the future martyr. 
" Not to answer the vocation as I ought, would be to provoke 
the justice of^God. As long as I live, I shall never cease striving 
to gain a passage to India." For fourteen years he toiled ; 
preaching, converting, baptizing multitudes, at the cost of pri- 
vations, hardships, and persecutions. At last, after being seized, 
tortured, and nearly massacred by the heathens, he was banish- 
ed the country. Forced to return to Portugal, John once more 
broke through every obstacle, and went back again to his labor of 
love. Like St. John the Baptist, he died a victim to the anger of a 
guilty woman, whom a convert king had put aside, and like the 
Precursor, he was beheaded after a painful imprisonment. 

Reflection. — " It is a great honor, a great glory to serve God, 
and to contemn all things for God. They will have a great grace 
who freely subject themselves to God's most holy will." — The 

Imitation of Christ. 

ST. ONESIMUS, DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL. 

E was a Phrygian by birth, slave to Philemon, a person of 
note of the city of Colossae, converted to the faith by St. 
Paul. Having robbed his master, and being obliged to 
fly, he providentially met with St. Paul, then a prisoner for the 
faith at Rome, who there converted and baptized him, and sent 
him with his canonical letter of recommendation to Philemon, by 
whom he was pardoned, set at liberty, and sent back to his spirit- 
ual father, whom he afterward faithfully served. That apostle 
made him, with Tychicus, the bearer of his epistle to the Colossians, 
and afterward, as St. Jerome and other fathers witness, a preacher 
of the Gospel and a bishop. He was crowned with martyrdom 
under Domitian in the year 95. 

Reflection. — With what excess of goodness does God com- 
municate Himself to souls which open themselves to Him ! With 
what caresses does He often visit them ! With what a profusion of 
graces does He enrich and strengthen them ! In our trials and 




February 17.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



97 




FEBRUARY 17.— ST. FLAVIAN, BISHOP, MARTYR. 

LA VI AN was elected Patriarch of Constantinople in 447. 
Lc£ His short episcopate of two years was a time of conflict 
and persecution from the first. Chrysaphius, the emperor's 
favorite, tried to extort a large sum of money from him on occa- 
sion of his consecration. His fidelity in refusing this simoniacal 
betrayal of his trust brought on him the enmity of the most pow- 
erful man in the empire. A graver trouble soon arose. In 448 
Flavian had to condemn the rising heresy of the monk Eutyches, 
who obstinately denied that our Lord was in two perfect natures 
after His Incarnation. Eutyches drew to his cause all the bad ele- 
ments which so early gathered about the Byzantine court. His 
intrigues were long baffled by the vigilance of Flavian ; but at last 
he obtained from the emperor the assembly of a council at Ephe- 
sus, in August, 449, presided over by his friend Dioscorus, Patri- 
arch of Alexandria. In this " robber council," as it is called, 
Eutyches entered, surrounded by soldiers. The Roman legates 
could not even read the Pope's letters ; and at the first sign of 



9 8 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February 18. 



resistance to the condemnation of Flavian, fresh troops entered 
with drawn swords, and, in spite of the protests of the legates, 
terrified most of the bishops into acquiescence. 

The fury of Dioscorus reached its height when Flavian appealed 
to the Holy See. Then it was that he so forgot his apostolic office 
as to lay violent hands on his adversary. St. Flavian was set upon 
by Dioscorus and others, thrown down, beaten, kicked, and finally 
carried into banishment. Let us contrast their ends. Flavian 
clung to the teaching of -the Roman Pontiff, and sealed his faith 
with his blood. Dioscorus excommunicated the Vicar of Christ, 
and died obstinate and impenitent in the heresy of Eutyches. 




Reflection. — By his unswerving loyalty to the Vicar of Christ, 
Flavian held fast to the truth and gained the martyr's crown. 
Let us learn from him to turn instinctively to that one True Guide 
in all matters concerning our salvation. 



FEBRUARY 18.— ST. SIMEON, BISHOP, MARTYR. 

T. SIMEON was the son of Cleophas, otherwise called 
Alpheus, brother to St. Joseph, and of Mary, sister of the 
Blessed Virgin. He was therefore nephew both to St. 
Joseph and to the Blessed Virgin, and cousin to our Saviour. 
IVe cannot doubt but he was an early follower of Christ, and 



February 18.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



99 



that he received the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, with the 
Blessed Virgin and the apostles. When the Jews massacred St. 
James the Lesser, his brother Simeon reproached them for their 
atrocious cruelty. St. James, Bishop of Jerusalem, being put to 
death in the year 62, twenty-nine years after our Saviour's resur- 
rection, the apostles and disciples met at Jerusalem to appoint him 
a successor. They unanimously chose St. Simeon, who had prob- 
ably before assisted his brother in the government of that Church. 

In the year 66, in which SS. Peter and Paul suffered martyr- 
dom at Rome, the civil war began in Judea, by the seditions of the 




Jews against the Romans. The Christians in Jerusalem were 
warned by God of the impending destruction of that city. They 
therefore departed out of it the same year, before Vespasian, 
Nero's general, and afterward emperor, entered Judea, and retired 
beyond Jordan to a small city called Pella, having St. Simeon at 
their head. After the taking and burning of Jerusalem, they 
returned thither again, and settled themselves amidst its ruins, till 
Adrian afterward entirely razed it. The Church here nourished, 
and multitudes of Jews were converted by the great number of 
prodigies and miracles wrought in it. 

Vespasian and Domitian had commanded all to be put to death 
who were of the race of David. St. Simeon had escaped their 
searches ; but Trajan having given the same order, certain heretics 



100 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February 19. 



and Jews accused the Saint, as being both of the race of David and 
a Christian, to Atticus, the Roman governor in Palestine. The holy 
bishop was condemned to be crucified. After having undergone 
the usual tortures during several days, which, though one hundred 
and twenty years old, he suffered with so much patience that he 
drew on him a universal admiration, and that of Atticus in par- 
ticular, he died in 107. He must have governed the Church of 
Jerusalem about forty-three years. 

Reflection. — We bear the name of Christians, but are full of 
the spirit of worldlings, and our actions are infected with its poi- 
son. We secretly seek ourselves, even when we natter ourselves 
that God is our only aim, and whilst we undertake to convert the 
world, we suffer it to pervert us. When shall we begin to study to 
•crucify our passions and die to ourselves, that we may lay a solid 
foundation of true virtue and establish its reign in our hearts? 

FEBRUARY 19.— ST. BARBATUS, BISHOP. 

fT. BARBATUS was born in the territory of Benevento, in 
Italy, toward the end of the pontificate of St. Gregory the 
Great, in the beginning of the seventh century. His parents 
gave him a Christian education, and Barbatus in his youth laid 
the foundation of that eminent sanctity which recommends him 
to our veneration. The innocence, simplicity, and purity of his 
manners, and extraordinary progress in all virtues, qualified him 
for the service of the altar, to which he was assumed by taking 
holy orders as soon as the canons of the Church would allow it. 
He was immediately employed by his bishop in preaching, for 
which he had an extraordinary talent, and, after some time, made 
curate of St. Basil's, in Morcona, a town near Benevento. His 
parishioners were steeled in their irregularities, and they treated 
him as a disturber of their peace, and persecuted him with the 
utmost violence. Finding their malice conquered by his patience 
and humility, and his character shining still more bright, they 
had recourse to slanders, in which, such was their virulence and 
•success, that he was obliged to withdraw his charitable endeavors 
among them. Barbafus returned to Benevento, where he was 
received with joy. When St. Barbatus entered upon his ministry 
in that city, the Christians themselves retained many idolatrous 
•superstitions, which even their duke, or Prince Romuald, author- 
ized by his example, though son of Grimoald, King of the Lom- 
bards, who had edified all Italy by his conversion. They expressed 



February 19.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



IOI 



a religious veneration to a golden viper, and prostrated them- 
selves before it ; they paid also a superstitious honor to a tree, on 
which they hung the skin of a wild beast ; and these ceremonies 
were closed by public games, in which the skin served for a mark 
at which bowmen shot arrows over their shoulders. St. Barbatus 
preached zealously against these abuses, and at length he roused 
their attention by foretelling the distress of their city, and the 
calamities which it was to suffer from the army of the Emperor 
Constans, who, landing soon after in Italy, laid siege to Benevento. 
Ildebrand, bishop of Benevento, dying during the siege, after the 
public tranquillity w r as restored, St. Barbatus was consecrated 




bishop on the 10th of March, 663 ; Barbatus, being invested with 
the episcopal character, pursued and completed the good work 
wdiich he had so happily begun, and destroyed every trace of super- 
stition in the whole state. In the year 680 he assisted in a council 
held by Pope Agatho, at Rome, and the year following in the sixth 
general council held at Constantinople against the Monothelites. 
He did not long survive this great assembly, for he died on the 
29th of February, 682, being about seventy years old almost nine- 
teen of which he had spent in the episcopal chair. 

Reflection— St. Augustine says : ' When the enemy has 
been cast out of your hearts, renounce him, not only in word, but 
in work ; not only by the sound of the lips, but in every act of 
your life." 



102 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [February 20. 




FEBRUARY 20. — ST. EUCHERIUS, BISHOP. 



fHIS Saint was born at Orleans of a very illustrious family. 
At his birth his parents dedicated him to God, and set him 
to study when he was but seven years old, resolving to omit 
nothing that could be done toward cultivating his mind or form- 
ing his heart. His improvement in virtue kept pace with his 
progress in learning : he meditated assiduously on the sacred 
writings, especially on St. Paul's manner of speaking on the world 
and its enjoyments, as mere empty shadows that deceive us and 
vanish away. These reflections at length sank so deep into his 
mind that he resolved to quit the world. To put this design in 
execution, about the year 714, he retired to the abbey of Jumiege, 
in Normandy, where he spent six or seven years in the practice of 
penitential austerities and obedience. Suavaric, his uncle, bishop 
of Orleans, having died, the senate and people, with the clergy of 
that city, begged permission to elect Eucherius to the vacant see. 
The Saint entreated his monks to screen him from the dangers that 
threatened him. But they preferred the public good to their pri- 
vate inclinations, and resigned him up for that important charge. 
He was consecrated with universal applause in 721. Charles 
Martel, to defray the expenses of his wars and other undertakings, 
often stripped the churches of their revenues. St. Eucherius 



February 21.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



IO3 



reproved these encroachments with so much zeal, that, in the year 
737, Charles banished him to Cologne. The extraordinary esteem 
which his virtue procured him in that city, moved Charles to order 
him to be conveyed thence to a strong place in the territory of 
Liege. Robert, the governor of that country, was so charmed 
with his virtue, that he made him the distributer of his large alms, 
and allowed him to retire to the monastery of Sarchinium, or St. 
Tron's. Here prayer and contemplation were his whole employ- 
ment till the year 743, in which he died on the 20th of February. 

Reflection. — Nothing softens the soul and weakens piety so 
much as frivolous indulgence. God has revealed what high store 
he sets by " retirement" in these words : " I will lead her into soli- 
tude, and I will speak to her heart." 

FEBRUARY 21— ST. SEVERIANUS, MARTYR, BISHOP. 

N the reign of Marcian and St. Pulcheria, the council of Chal- 
cedon, which condemned the Eutychian heresy, was received 
by St. Euthymius, and by a great part of the monks of Pales- 
tine. But Theodosius, an ignorant Eutychian monk, and a man 




of a most tyrannical temper, under the protection of the empress 
Eudoxia, widow of Theodosius the Younger, who lived at Jeru- 
salem, perverted many among the monks themselves, and having 




io4 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February 22. 



obliged Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem, to withdraw, unjustly pos- 
sessed himself of that important see, and in a cruel persecution 
which he raised, filled Jerusalem with blood ; then, at the head of 
a band of soldiers, he carried desolation over the country. Man}', 
however, had the courage to stand their ground. No one resisted 
him with greater zeal and resolution than Severianus, bishop of 
Scythopolis, and his recompense was the crown of martyrdom ; 
for the furious soldiers seized his person, dragged him out of the 
city, and massacred him in the latter part of the year 452, or in 
the beginning of the year 453. 

Reflection. — With what floods of tears can we sufficiently be- 
wail so grievous a misfortune, and implore the divine mercy in 
behalf of so many souls ! How ought we to be alarmed at the 
consideration of so many dreadful examples of God's inscrutable 
judgments, and tremble for ourselves ! "Let him who stands be- 
ware lest he fall. Hold fast what thou hast," says the oracle of 
the Holy Ghost to every one of us, "lest another bear away thy 
crown." 



4 



FEBRUARY 22.— ST. PETER'S CHAIR AT ANTIOCH. 



'Vil^HAT Saint Peter, before he went to Rome, founded the see 
'jjj^ of Antioch is attested by many Saints. It was just that the 
Prince of the Apostles should take this city under his par- 
ticular care and inspection, which was then the capital of the East, 
and in which the faith took so early and so deep root as to give 
birth in it to the name of Christians. St. Chrysostom says that 
St. Peter made there a long stay : St. Gregory the Great, that he 
was seven years bishop of Antioch ; not that he resided there all 
that time, but only that he had a particular care over that Church. 
If he sat twenty-five years at Rome, the date of his establishing 
his chair at Antioch must be within three years after our Saviour's 
Ascension ; for in that supposition he must have gone to Rome in 
the second year of Claudius. In the first ages it was customary, 
especially in the East, for every Christian to keep the anniversary 
of his baptism, on which he renewed his baptismal vows, and 
gave thanks to God for his heavenly adoption : this they called 
their spiritual birthday. The bishops in like manner kept the 
anniversary of their own consecration, as appears from four ser- 
mons of St. Leo on the anniversary of his accession or assumption 
to the pontifical dignity ; and this was frequently continued after 



February 23.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



105 




their decease by the people, out of respect to their memory. 
St. Leo says, we ought to celebrate the Chair of St. Peter with no 
less joy than the day of his martyrdom ; for as in this he was ex- 
alted to a throne of glory in heaven, so by the former he was 
installed Head of the Church on earth. 



Reflection. — On this festival we are especially bound to adore 
and thank the Divine Goodness for the establishment and propaga- 
tion of His Church, and earnestly to pray that in His mercy He 
preserve the same, and dilate its pale, that His name may be glori- 
fied by all nations, and by all hearts, to the boundaries of the 
earth, for His divine honor and the salvation of souls, framed 
to His divine image, and the price of His adorable blood. 

[/ FEBRUARY 23.— ST. PETER DAMIAN. 

fT. PETER DAMIAN was born in 988, and lost both parents 
at an early age. His eldest brother, in whose hands he was 
left, treated him so cruelly that a younger brother, a priest, 
moved by his piteous state, sent him to the university of Parma, 
where he acquired great distinction. His studies were sanctified by 
vigils, fasts, and prayers, till at last, thinking that all this was only 
serving God by halves, he resolved to leave the world. He joined 
the monks of Font-Avellano, then in the greatest repute, and by 



io6 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February 23. 



his wisdom and sanctity rose to be Superior. He was employed 
on the most delicate and difficult missions, amongst others, the 
reform of ecclesiastical communities, which was effected by his 
zeal. Seven Popes in succession made him their constant adviser, 
and he was at last created Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. He with- 
stood Henry IV. of Germany, and labored in defence of Alexan- 
der II. against the Antipope, whom he forced to yield and seek 
for pardon. He was charged, as Papal Legate, with the repres- 
sion of simony ; again was commissioned to settle discords 
amongst various bishops; and finally, in 1072, to adjust the affairs 
of the Church at Ravenna. He was laid low by a fever on his 
homeward journey, and died at Faenza, in a monastery of his 
order, on the eighth day of his sickness, whilst the monks chanted 
matins around him. 

Reflection. — The Saints studied, not in order to be accounted 
learned, but to become perfect. This only is wisdom and true 
greatness, to account ourselves as ignorant, and to adhere in all 
things to the teachings and instincts of the Church. 

ST. SERENUS, A GARDENER, MARTYR. 

ERENUS was by birth a Grecian. He quitted estate, friends' 
V«§) and country to serve God in celibacy, penance, and prayer. 

With this design he bought a garden in Sirmium, in Pan- 
nonia, which he cultivated with his own hands, and lived on the 
fruits and herbs it produced. One day there came thither a 
woman, with her two daughters. Serenus, seeing them come up, 
advised them to withdraw, and to conduct themselves in future 
as decency required in persons of their sex and condition. The 
woman, stung at our Saint's charitable remonstrance, retired in 
confusion, but resolved on revenging the supposed affront. She 
accordingly wrote to her husband that Serenus had insulted her. 
He, on receiving her letter, went to the emperor to demand jus- 
tice, whereupon the emperor gave him a letter to the governor of 
the province to enable him to obtain satisfaction. The governor 
ordered Serenus to be immediately brought before him. Serenus, 
on hearing the charge, answered, " I remember that, some time 
ago, a lady came into my garden at an unseasonable hour, and I 
own I took the liberty to tell her it was against decency for one 
of her sex and quality to be abroad at such an hour." This plea 
of Serenus having put the officer to the blush for his wife's 



February 23.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



I07 



conduct, he dropped his prosecution. But the governor, suspecting 
by this answer that Serenus might be a Christian, began to question 
him, saying, " Who are you, and what is your religion ?" Serenus, 
without hesitating one moment, answered, " I am a Christian. It 
seemed awhile ago as if God rejected me as a stone unfit to enter 
His building, but He has the goodness to take me now to be placed 
in it ; I am ready to suffer all things for His name, that I may have 
a part in His kingdom with His Saints." The governor, hearing 
this, burst into rage, and said, " Since you sought to elude by 
flight the emperor's edicts, and have positively refused to sacrifice 




to the gods, I condemn you for these crimes to lose your head." 
The sentence was no sooner pronounced than the Saint was car- 
ried off and beheaded, on the 23d of February, in 307. 

Reflection. — The garden affords a beautiful emblem of a 
Christian's continual progress in the path of virtue. Plants always 
mount upwards, and never stop in their growth till they have attained 
to that maturity which the author of nature has prescribed. So in a 
Christian, every thing ought to carry him toward that perfection 
which the sanctity of his state requires ; and every desire of his 
soul, every.action of his life, should be a step advancing to this 
in a direct line. 



io8 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February 24. 



FEBRUARY 24.— ST. MATTHIAS, APOSTLE. 

FTER our Blessed Lord's ascension His disciples met to- 
gether, with Mary His mother, and the eleven apostles, in 
an upper room at Jerusalem. The little company num- 
bered no more than one hundred and twenty souls. They were 
waiting for the promised coming of the Holy Ghost, and they per- 
severed in prayer. Meanwhile there was a solemn act to be per- 
formed on the part of the Church, which could not be postponed. 
The place of the fallen Judas must be filled up, that the elect 
number of the apostles might be complete. St. Peter, therefore, 




as Vicar of Christ, arose to announce the divine decree. That 
which the Holy Ghost had spoken by the mouth of David con- 
cerning Judas, he said, must be fulfilled. Of him it had been 
written, " His bishopric let another take." A choice, therefore, 
was to be made of one among those who had been their com- 
panions from the beginning, who could bear witness to the resur- 
rection of Jesus. Two were named of equal merit, Joseph called 
Barsabas, and Matthias. Then, after praying to God, who knows 
the hearts of all men, to show which of these He had chosen, they 
cast lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, who was forthwith num- 
bered with the apostles. It is recorded of the Saint, thus wonder- 
fully elected to so high a vocation, that he was above all remark- 




February 25.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



109 



able for his mortification of the flesh. It was thus he made his 
election sure. 

Reflection. — Our ignorance of many points in St. Matthias's 
life serves to fix the attention all the more firmly upon these two 
— the occasion of his call to the apostolate, and the fact of his per- 
severance. We then naturally turn in thought to our own voca- 
tion and our own end. 

FEBRUARY 25.— ST. TARASIUS. 

ARASIUS was born at Constantinople about the middle of 
the eighth century, of a noble family. His mother, Eucra- 
tia, brought him up in the practice of the most eminent vir- 
tues. By his talents and virtue he gained the esteem of all, and 




was raised to the greatest honors of the empire, being made con- 
sul, and afterward first secretary of state to the £mperor Constan- 
tine and the Empress Irene, his mother. In the midst of the court, 
and in its highest honors, he led a life like that of a religious 
man. Paul, Patriarch of Constantinople, the third of that name, 
though he had conformed in some respects to the then reigning 
heresy, had several good qualities ; and was not only beloved by 
the people for his charity to the poor, but highly esteemed by the 




IIO 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [February 26. 



whole court for his great prudence. Touched with remorse, he 
quitted the patriarchal see, and put on a religious habit in the 
monastery of Florus, in Constantinople. Tarasius was chosen to 
succeed him by the unanimous consent of the court, clergy, and 
people. Finding it in vain to oppose his election, he declared 
that he could not in conscience accept of the government of 
a see which had been cut off from the Catholic communion, 
except on condition that a general council should be called to 
compose the disputes which divided the Church at that time 
in relation to holy images. This being agreed to, he was solemnly 
declared patriarch, and consecrated soon after, on Christmas day. 
The council was opened on the 1st of August, in the church of 
the Apostles at Constantinople, in 786. But being disturbed by 
the violences of the Iconoclasts, it adjourned and met again the 
year following in the church of St. Sophia, at Nice. The council 
having declared the sense of the Church, in relation to the matter m 
debate, which was found to be the allowing to holy pictures and 
images a relative honor, was closed with the usual acclamations and 
prayers for the prosperity of the Emperor and Empress. After 
which, synodal letters were sent to all. the churches, and in partic- 
ular to the Pope, who approved the council. The life of this holy 
patriarch was a model of perfection to his clergy and people. His 
table contained barely the necessaries of life, he allowed himself 
very little time for sleep, being always up the first and last in his 
family. Reading and prayer filled all his leisure hours. The 
Emperor having become enamoured of Theodota, a maid of honor 
to his wife, the Empress Mary, was resolved to divorce the latter. 
He used all his efforts to gain the patriarch over to his desires, but 
St. Tarasius resolutely refused to countenance the iniquity. The 
holy man gave up his soul to God in peace, on the 25th of Febru- 
ary, 806, after having sat twenty-one years and two months. 

Reflection. — The highest praise which Scripture pronounces 
on the holy man Job, is comprised in these words, " He was sim- 
ple and upright." 

FEBRUARY 26.— ST. PORPHYRY, BISHOP. 

T the age of twenty-five, Porphyry, a rich citizen of Thessa- 
lonica, left the world for one of the great religious houses 
in the desert of Scete. Here he remained five years, and 
then finding himself drawn to a more solitary life passed into Pal- 




February 26.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



I I I 



estine, where he spent a similar period in the severest penance, 
till ill health obliged him to moderate his austerities. He then 
made his home in Jerusalem, and in spite of his ailments visited 
the Holy Places every day ; thinking, says his biographer, so lit- 
tle of his sickness, that he seemed to be afflicted in another body, 
and not his own. About this time God put it into his heart to 
sell all he had and give to the poor, and then in reward of the sac- 
rifice restored him by a miracle to perfect health. In 393 he was 
ordained priest, and intrusted with the care of the relics of the 
True Cross ; three years later, in spite of all the resistance his hu- 




mility could make, he was consecrated Bishop of Gaza. That city 
was a hot-bed of paganism, and Porphyry found in it an ample 
scope for his apostolic zeal. His labors and the miracles which 
attended them effected the conversion of many ; and an imperial 
edict for the destruction of the temples, obtained through the 
influence of St. John Chrysostom, greatly strengthened his hands. 
When St. Porphyry first went to Gaza, he found there one temple 
more splendid than the rest, in honor of the chief god. When 
the edict went forth to destroy all traces of heathen worship, St. 
Porphyry determined to put Satan to special shame where he had 
received special honor. A Christian church was built upon the 
site, and its approach was paved with the marbles of the heathen 
temple. Thus every worshipper of Jesus Christ trod the relics of 



112 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February 27. 



idolatry and superstition under foot each time he went to assist 
at the Holy Mass. He lived to see his diocese for the most part 
clear of idolatry, and died a.d. 420. 

Reflection. — All superstitious searching into secret things is 
forbidden by the first commandment, equally with the worship of 
any false god. Let us ask St. Porphyry for a great zeal in keep- 
ing this commandment, lest we be led away, as so many are, by 
a curious and prying mind. 

FEBRUARY 27.— ST. LEANDER, BISHOP. 

fT. LEANDER was born of an illustrious family at Cartha- 
gena, in Spain. He was the eldest of five brothers, several 
of whom are numbered among the Saints. He entered into 
a monastery very young, where he lived many years and attained 
to an eminent degree of virtue and sacred learning. These quali- 




ties occasioned his being promoted to the see of Seville ; but his 
change of condition made little or no alteration in his method 
of life, though it brought on him a great increase of care and soli- 
citude. Spain at that time was in possession of the Visigoths. 
These Goths being infected with Arianism, established this heresy 
wherever they came ; so that when St. Leander was made bishop, 



February 28.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 113 

it had reigned in Spain a hundred years. This was his great 
affliction ; however, by his prayers to God, and by his most zealous 
and unwearied endeavors, he became the happy instrument of 
the conversion of that nation to the Catholic faith. Having con- 
verted, among others, Hermenegild, the king's eldest son and heir 
apparent, Leander was banished by King Leovigild. This pious 
prince was put to death by his unnatural father, the year follow- 
ing, for refusing to receive communion from the hands of an 
Arian bishop. But, touched with remorse not long after, the king 
recalled our Saint ; and falling sick and finding himself past hopes 
of recovery, he sent for St. Leander, and recommended to him his 
son Recared. This son, by listening to St. Leander, soon became 
a Catholic, and finally converted the whole nation of the Visigoths. 
He was no less successful with respect to the Suevi, a people of 
Spain, whom his father Leovigild had perverted. 

St. Leander was no less zealous in the reformation of manners 
than in restoring the purity of faith ; and he planted the seeds of 
that zeal and fervor which afterward produced so many Martyrs and 
Saints. This holy doctor of Spain died about the year 596, on the 
27th of February, as Mabillon proves from his epitaph. The 
Church of Seville has been a metropolitan see ever since the third 
century. The cathedral is the most magnificent, both as to struc- 
ture and ornament, of any in all Spain. 

FEBRUARY 28.— SS. ROMANUS AND LUPICINUS, ABBOTS. 

OMANUS at thirty-five years of age left his relations and 
spent some time in the monastery of Ainay, at Lyons, at 
the great church at the conflux of the Saone and Rhone 
which the faithful had built over the ashes of the famous martyrs 
of that city ; for their bodies being burnt by the pagans, their 
ashes were thrown into the Rhone, but a great part of them was 
gathered by the Christians and deposited in this place. Romanus 
a short time after retired into the forests of Mount Jura, between 
France and Switzerland, and fixed his abode at a place called Con- 
date, at the conflux of the rivers Bienne and Aliere, where he 
found a spot of ground fit for culture, and some trees which 
furnished him with a kind of wild fruit. Here he spent his 
time in praying, reading, and laboring for his subsistence. Lu- 
picinus his brother came to him some time after in company 
with others, who were followed by several more, drawn by the 
fame of the virtue and miracles of these two Saints. Their num- 



ii4 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[February 29. 




bers increasing they built several monasteries, and a nunnery- 
called La Beaume, which no men were allowed ever to enter, 
and where St. Romanus chose his burial place. The brothers 
governed the monks jointly and in great harmony, though Lu- 
picinus was more inclined to severity of the two. Lupicinus 
used no other bed than a chair or a hard board ; never touched 
wine, and would scarce ever suffer a drop either of oil or milk 
to be poured on his pottage. In summer his subsistence for 
many years was only hard bread moistened in cold water, so 
that he could eat it with a spoon. His tunic was made of 
various skins of beasts sewn together, with a cowl : he used 
wooden shoes, and wore no stockings unless* when he was obliged 
to go out of the monastery. St. Romanus died about the year 
460, and St. Lupicinus survived him almost twenty years. 



FEBRUARY 29.-ST. OSWALD, BISHOP. 

SWALD was of a noble Saxon family, and was endowed with 
a very rare and beautiful form of body and with a singular 
piety of soul. He was brought up by his uncle, St. Odo, Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, and was chosen, while still young, dean of the 
secular canons of Winchester, then very relaxed. His attempt to 
reform them was a failure ; and he saw, with that infallible instinct 



March I.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



115 



which so often guides the Saints in critical times, that the true 
remedy for the corruptions of the clergy was the restoration of 
the monastic life. He therefore went to France, and took the 
habit of St. Benedict ; but returned only to receive the news of 
Odo's death. He found, however, a new patron in St. Dunstan, 
now Metropolitan, through whose influence he was nominated to 
the see of Worcester. To these two Saints, together with Ethel- 
wold of Winchester, the monastic revival of the tenth century is 
mainly due. Oswald's first care was to deprive of their benefices 
the disorderly clerics, whom he replaced as far as possible by 
regulars, and himself founded seven religious houses. Consider- 
ing that in the hearts of the secular canons there were yet some 
sparks of virtue, he would not at once expel them, but rather en- 
trapped them by a holy artifice. Adjoining the cathedral he built 
a church in honor of the Mother of God, causing it to be served 
by a body of strict religious. He himself assisted at the Divine 
Office in this church, and his example was followed by the people. 
The canons finding themselves isolated, and their cathedral deserted, 
chose rather to embrace the religious life than to continue not 
only to injure their own souls, but to be a mockery to their people 
by reason of the contrast offered by their worldliness to the regu- 
larity of their religious brethren. As Archbishop of York a like 
success attended St. Oswald's efforts ; and God manifested His 
approval of his zeal by discovering to him the relics of his great 
predecessor, St. Wilfrid, which he reverently translated to Wor- 
cester. He died February 29th, 992. 

Reflection. — A seul without discipline is like a ship without 
a helm ; she must inevitably strike unawares upon the rocks, 
founder on the shoals, or float unknowingly into the harbor of 
the enemy. 

MARCH 1.— ST. DAVID, BISHOP. 

T. DAVID, son of Sant, prince of Cardigan and of Non, was 
born in that country in the fifth century, and from his ear- 
liest years gave himself wholly to the service of God. He 
began his religious life under St. Paulinus, a disciple of St. Ger- 
manus, Bishop of Auxerre, who had been sent to Britain by Pope 
St. Celestine to stop the ravages of the heresy of Pelagius, at that 
time abbot, as it is said, of Bangor. On the reappearance of that 
heresy, in the beginning of the sixth century, the bishops assent 
bled at Brevi, and, unable to address the people that came to hear 




n6 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March I 



the word of truth., sent for St. David from his cell to preach to 
them. The Saint came, and it is related that, as he preached, the 
ground beneath his feet rose and became a hill, so that he was 
heard by an innumerable crowd. The heresy fell under the sword 
of the spirit, and the Saint was elected Bishop of Caerleon on the 
resignation of St. Dubricius; but he removed the see to Menevia,- 
a lone and desert spot, where he might with his monks serve God 
away from the noise of the world. He founded twelve monaster- 
ies, and governed his Church according to the canons sanctioned 
in Rome. At last, when about eighty years of age, he laid him- 
self down, knowing that his hour was come. As his agony closed, 
our Lord stood before him in a vision, and the Saint cried out, 
" Take me up with Thee," and so gave up his soul on Tuesday, 
March ist, 561 

ST. ALBINUS, BISHOP. 

• 

T. ALBINUS was of an ancient and noble family in Brit- 
tany, and from his childhood was fervent in every exercise of 
piety. He ardently sighed after the happiness which a devout 
soul finds in being perfectly disengaged from all earthly things. 




Having embraced the monastic state at Tintillant, near Angers, he 
shone a perfect model of virtue, living as if in all things he had been 
without any will of his own, and his soul seemed so perfectly 




March 2.J 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



117 



governed by the spirit of Christ as to live only for Him. At the 
age of thirty-five years he was chosen abbot, in 504, and twenty- 
five years afterward, bishop of Angers. He everywhere restored 
discipline, being inflamed with a holy zeal for the honor of God. 
His dignity seemed to make no alteration either in his mortifica- 
tions or in the constant recollection of his soul. Honored by all 
the world, even by kings, he was never affected with vanity. 
Powerful in works and miracles, he looked upon himself as the 
most unworthy and most unprofitable among the servants of God, 
and had no other ambition than to appear such in the eyes of 
others as he was in those of his own humility. In the third coun- 
cil of Orleans, in 538, he procured the thirtieth canon of the coun- 
cil of Epaone to be revived, by which those are declared excom- 
municated who presume to contract incestuous marriages in the 
first or second degree of consanguinity or affinity. He died on 
the 1 st of March, in 549. 

Reflection. — With whatever virtues a man may be endowed, 
he will discover, if he considers himself attentively, a sufficient 
depth of misery to afford cause for deep humility ; but Jesus Christ 
says, " He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." 



MARCH 2. — ST. SIMPLICIUS, POPE. 

fT. SIMPLICIUS was the ornament of the Roman clergy 
under SS. Leo and Hilarius, and succeeded the latter in 
the pontificate in 497. He was raised by God to comfort 
and support his Church amidst the greatest storms. All the prov- 
inces of the Western Empire, out of Italy, were fallen into the 
hands of barbarians. The emperors for many years were rather 
shadows of power than sovereigns, and in the eighth year of the 
pontificate of Simplicius, Rome itself fell a prey to foreigners. 
Italy, by oppressions and the ravages of barbarians, was left al- 
most a desert without inhabitants ; and the imperial armies con- 
sisted chiefly of barbarians, hired under the name of auxiliaries. 
These soon saw their masters were in their power. The Heruli de- 
manded one-third of the lands of Italy, and, upon refusal, chose for 
their leader Odoacer, one of the lowest extraction, but a resolute and 
intrepid man, who was proclaimed king at Rome in 476. He put 
to death Orestes, who was regent of the empire for his son Augus- 
tulus, whom the senate had advanced to the imperial throne. 
Odoacer spared the life of Augustulus, and appointed him a salary 



1 18 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 2. 



of six thousand pounds of gold, and permitted him to live at full 
liberty near Naples. Pope Simplicius was wholly taken up in com- 
forting and relieving the afflicted, and in sowing the seeds of the 
Catholic faith among the barbarians. The East gave his zeal no less 
employment and concern. Peter Cnapheus, a violent Eutychian, was 
made by the heretics patriarch of Antioch ; and Peter Mongus, one of 
the most profligate men, that of Alexandria. Acacius, the patriarch 
of Constantinople, received the sentence of St. Simplicius against 
Cnapheus, but supported Mongus against him and the Catholic 
Church, and was a notorious changeling, double dealer, and artful 




hypocrite, who often made religion serve his own private ends. 
St. Simplicius at length discovered his artifices, and redoubled his 
zeal to maintain the holy faith, which he saw betrayed on every 
side, whilst the patriarchal sees of Alexandria and Antioch were 
occupied by furious wolves, and there was not one Catholic king 
in the whole world. The emperor measured every thing by his 
passions and human views. St. Simplicius having sat fifteen 
years, eleven months, and six days, went to receive the reward of 
his labors, in 483. He was buried in St. Peter's on the 2d of 
March. 

Reflection. — " He that trusteth in God, shall fare never the 
•worse," saith the Wise Man in the Book of Ecclesiasticus. 



March 3.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



II 9 



MARCH 3. — ST. CUNEGUNDES, EMPRESS. 

Y§2?T. CUNEGUNDES was the daughter of Sigefride, the first 
Count of Luxemburgh, and Hadeswige, his pious wife. They 
instilled into her from her cradle the most tender sentiments 
of piety, and married her to St. Henry, Duke of Bavaria, who, 
upon the death of the Emperor Otho III., was chosen king of 
the Romans, and crowned on the 6th of June, 1002. She was 
crowned at Paderborn on St. Laurence's day. In the year 1014 
she went with her husband to Rome, and received the imperial 
crown with him from the hands of Pope Benedict VIII. She had, 




by St. Henry's consent before her marriage, made a vow of virgin- 
ity. Calumniators afterward made vile accusations against her, 
and the holy empress, to remove the scandal of such a slander, 
trusting in God to prove her innocence, walked over red-hot 
plough-shares without being hurt. The emperor condemned his 
too scrupulous fears and credulity, and from that time they lived 
in the strictest union of hearts, conspiring to promote in every 
thing God's honor and the advancement of piety. 

Going once to make a retreat in Hesse, she fell dangerously ill, 
and made a vow to found a monastery, if she recovered, at Kaffun- 
gen, nearCassel, in the diocese of Paderborn, which she executed 
in a stately manner, and gave it to nuns of the Order of St. Bene- 



120 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 4. 



diet. Before it was finished St. Henry died, in 1024. She earnestly 
recommended his soul to the prayers of others, especially to her 
dear nuns, and expressed her longing desire of joining them. 
She had already exhausted her treasures in founding bishoprics 
and monasteries, and in relieving the poor, and she had therefore 
little now left to give. But still thirsting to embrace perfect evan- 
gelical poverty, and to renounce all to serve God without obstacle, 
she assembled a great number of prelates to the dedication of her 
church of Kaffungen on the anniversary day of her husband's 
death, 1025, and after the Gospel was sung at Mass, she offered on 
the altar a piece of the True Cross, and then putting off her imperial 
robes, clothed herself with a poor habit : her hair was cut off, and 
the bishop put on her a veil, and a ring as a pledge of her fidelity 
to her heavenly spouse. After she was consecrated to God in 
religion, she seemed entirely to forget that she had been empress, 
and behaved as the last in the house, being persuaded that she was 
so before God. She prayed and read much, worked with her 
hands, and took a singular pleasure in visiting and comforting the 
sick. Thus she passed the fifteen last years of her life. Her mor- 
tifications at length reduced her to a very weak condition, and 
brought on her last sickness. Perceiving they were preparing a 
cloth fringed with gold to cover her corpse after her death, she 
changed color and ordered it to be taken away ; nor could she be 
at rest till she was promised she should be buried as a poor reli- 
gious in her habit. She died on the 3rd of March, 1040. Her 
body was carried to Bamberg, and buried near that of her husband. 
She was solemnly canonized by Innocent III. in 1200. 

Reflection. — Detachment of the mind, at least, is needful to 
those who cannot venture on an effectual renunciation. " So 
likewise every one of you," saith Jesus Christ, " that doth not re- 
nounce all that he possesseth, cannot be my disciple." 

MARCH 4.— ST. CASIMIR, KING. 

ASIMIR, the second son of Casimir III., King of Poland, 
was born a.d. 1458. From the custody of a most virtuous 
mother, Elizabeth of Austria, he passed to the guardianship 
of a devoted master, the learned and pious John Dugloss. Thus 
animated from his earliest years by precept and example, his inno- 
cence and piety soon ripened into the practice of heroic virtue. 
At the age of twenty-five, sick of a lingering illness, he foretold 




March 4.] 



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121 



the hour of his death, and chose to die a virgin rather than take 
the life and health which the doctors held out to him in the mar- 
ried state. In an atmosphere of luxury and magnificence the 
young prince had fasted, worn a hair shirt, slept upon the bare 
earth, prayed by night, and watched for the opening of the church- 
doors at dawn. He had become so tenderly devoted to the Pas- 
sion of our Lord, that at Mass he seemed quite rapt out of himself, 
and his charity to the poor and afflicted knew no bounds. His 
love for our Blessed Lady he expressed in a long and beautiful 
hymn, familiar to us in our own tongue. The miracles wrought 




by his body after death fill a volume. The blind saw, the lame 
walked, the sick were healed, a dead girl was raised to life. And 
once the Saint in glory led his countrymen to battle, and delivered 
them by a glorious victory from the schismatic Russian hosts. 

One hundred and twenty-two years after his death the Saint's 
tomb in the cathedral of Vienna was opened, that the holy body 
might be transferred to the rich marble chapel where it now lies. 
The place was damp, and the very vault crumbled away in the 
hands of the workmen ; yet the Saint's body, wrapt in robes of 
silk, was found whole and incorrupt, and emitted a sweet fragrance, 
which filled the church and refreshed all who were present. 
Under his head was found his hymn to our Lady, which he had 
had buried with him. The following night three young men saw 



122 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 5. 



a brilliant light issuing from the open tomb and streaming through 
the windows of the chapel. 

Reflection. — Let the study of St. Casimir's life make us in- 
crease in devotion to the most pure Mother of God, a sure means 
of preserving holy purity. 

MARCH 5.— SS. ADRIAN AND EUBULUS, MARTYRS. 

tN the seventh year of Dioclesian's persecution, continued by 
Galerius Maximianus, when Firmilian, the most bloody gov- 
ernor of Palestine, had stained Caesarea with the blood of many 
illustrious martyrs, Adrian and Eubulus came out of the country 
called Magantia, to Caesarea, in order to visit the holy confessors 
there. At the gates of the city they were asked, as others were, 
whither they were going, and upon what errand ? They ingenuously 
confessed the truth, and were brought before the president, who or- 
dered them to be tortured, and their sides to be torn with iron hooks, 
and then condemned them to be exposed to wild beasts. Two days 




after, when the pagans at Caesarea celebrated the festival of the 
public Genius, Adrian was exposed to a lion, and not being de- 
spatched by that beast, hut only mangled, was at length killed by the 
sword. Eubulus was treated in the same manner two days later. 



March 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



123 



The judge offered him his liberty if he would sacrifice to idols ; but 
the Saint preferred a glorious death, and was the last that suffered 
in this persecution at Caesarea, which had now continued twelve 
years under three successive governors, Flavian, Urban, and Fir- 
milian. Divine vengeance pursuing the cruel Firmilian, he was 
that same year beheaded for his crimes, by the emperor's order, as 
his predecessor Urban had been two years before. 

Reflection. — It is in vain that we take the name of Christians, 
or pretend to follow Christ, unless we carry our crosses after Him. 
It is in vain that we hope to share in His glory, and in His king- 
dom, if we accept not the condition. We cannot arrive at heaven 
by any other road but that which Christ held, who bequeathed His 
cross to all His elect as their portion and inheritance in this world. 

MARCH 6.— ST. COLETTE, VIRGIN. 

FTER a holy childhood, Colette joined a society of devout 
women called the Beguines; but not finding their state suffi- 
ciently austere, she entered the Third Order of St. Francis, 
and lived in a hut near her parish church of Corbie in Picardy. 
Here she had passed four years of extraordinary penance, when 
St. Francis, in a vision, bade her undertake the reform of her 
Order, then much relaxed. Armed with due authority, she estab- 
lished her reform throughout a large part of Europe, and, in spite 
of the most violent opposition, founded seventeen convents of the 
strict observance. By the same wonderful prudence she assisted 
in healing the great schism which then afflicted the Church. The 
fathers in council at Constance were in doubt how to deal with 
the three claimants to the tiara — John XXIII., Benedict XIII., and 
Gregory XII. At this crisis Colette, together with St. Vincent 
Ferrer, wrote to the fathers to depose Benedict XIII., who alone 
refused his consent to a new election. This was done, and Martin 
V. was elected, to the great good of the Church. Colette equally 
assisted the Council of Basle by her advice and prayers; and when, 
later, God revealed to her the spirit of revolt that was rising, she 
warned the bishops and legates to retire from the Council. St. 
Colette never ceased to pray for the Church, while the devils, in 
turn, never ceased to assault her. They swarmed round her as 
hideous insects, buzzing and stinging her tender skin. They 
brought into her cell the decaying corpses of public criminals, 
and assuming themselves monstrous forms struck her savage 



124 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 7. 




blows; or they would appear in the- most seductive guise, and 
tempt her by many deceits to sin. St. Colette once complained to 
our Lord that the demons prevented her from praying. " Cease, 
then," said the devil to her, "your prayers to the great Master of 
the Church, and we will cease to torment you ; for you torment 
us more by your prayers than we do you." Yet the virgin of Christ 
triumphed alike over their threats and allurements, and said she 
would count that day the unhappiest of her life in which she suf- 
fered nothing for her God. She died March 6th, 1447, in a trans- 
port of intercession for sinners and the Church. 

Reflection. — One of the greatest tests of being a good Catholic 
is zeal for the Church and devotion to Christ's Vicar. 

MARCH 7.— ST THOMAS AQUINAS. 

T. THOMAS was born of noble parents at Aquino, in Italy, 
a.d. 1226. At the age of nineteen he received the Domini- 
can habit at Naples, where he was studying. Seized by his 
brothers on his way to Paris, he suffered a two years' captivity in 
their castle of Rocca-Secca; but neither the caresses of his mother 
and sisters, nor the threats and stratagems of his brothers, could 
shake him in his vocation. While St. Thomas was in confinement 
at Rocca-Secca, his brothers endeavored to entrap him into sin, but 




March 7.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



125 



the attempt only ended in the triumph of his purity. Snatching 
from the hearth a burning brand, the Saint drove from his chamber 
the wretched creature whom they had there concealed. Then mark- 
ing a cross upon the wall, he knelt down to pray, and forthwith, be- 
ing rapt in ecstasy, an angel girded him with a cord, in token of the 
gift of perpetual chastity which God had given him. The pain 
caused by the girdle was so sharp that St. Thomas uttered a pierc- 
ing cry, which brought his guards into the room. But he never 
told this grace to any one save only to Father Raynald, his con- 
fessor, a little while before his death. Hence originated the Con- 




fraternity of the "Angelic Warfare," for the preservation of the 
virtue of chastity. Having at length escaped, St. Thomas went to 
Cologne to study under Blessed Albert the Great, and after that 
to Paris, where for many years he taught philosophy and theology. 
The Church has ever venerated his numerous writings as a treas- 
ure-house of sacred doctrine ; while in naming him the Angelic 
Doctor, she has indicated that his science is more divine than 
human. The rarest gifts of intellect were combined in him with 
the tenderest piety. Prayer, he said, had taught him more than 
study. His singular devotion to the Blessed Sacrament shines 
forth in the Office and hymns for Corpus Christi, which he com- 
posed. To the words miraculously uttered by a crucifix at Naples, 
" Well hast thou written concerning Me, Thomas ; what shall I 



126 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 8. 



give thee as a reward?" he replied, "Nought save Thyself, O 
Lord." He died at Fossa-Nuova, a.d. 1274, on his way to the 
General Council of Lyons, to which Pope Gregory X. had sum- 
moned him. 

Reflection. — The knowledge of God is for all, but hidden 
treasures are reserved for those who have ever followed the Lamb. 

/ 

MARCH 8.— ST. JOHN OF GOD. 

OTHING in John's earlylife foreshadowed his future sanctity. 
He ran away as a boy from his home in Portugal, tended 
sheep and cattle in Spain, and served as a soldier against 
the French, and afterwards against the Turks. When about forty 




years of age, feeling remorse for his wild life, he resolved to de- 
vote himself to the ransom of the Christian slaves in Africa, and 
went thither with the family of an exiled noble, which he main- 
tained by his labor. On his return to Spain he sought to do good 
by selling holy pictures and books at low prices. At length the 
hour of grace struck. At Granada, a sermon, by the celebrated 
John of Avila, shook his soul to its depths, and his expressions of 
self-abhorrence were so extraordinary that he was taken to the 
asylum as one mad. There he employed himself in ministering 




March 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



127 



to the sick. On leaving he began to collect homeless poor, and 
to support them by his work and by begging. One night, St. 
John found in the streets a poor man who seemed near death, and, 
as was his wont, he carried him to the hospital, laid him on a bed, 
and went to fetch water to wash his feet. When he had washed 
them, he knelt to kiss them, and started with awe; the feet were 
pierced, and the print of the nails bright with an unearthly radi- 
ance. He raised his eyes to look, and heard the words, " John, to 
Me thou doest all that thou doest to the poor in My name ; I reach 
forth My hand for the alms thou givest ; Me dost thou clothe, 
Mine are the feet thou dost wash." And then the gracious vision 
disappeared, leaving St. John filled at once with confusion and 
consolation. The bishop became the Saint's patron, and gave him 
the name of John of God. When his hospital was on fire, John 
was seen rushing about uninjured amidst the flames until he had 
rescued all his poor. After ten years spent in the service of the 
suffering, the Saint's life was fitly closed. He plunged into the 
river Xenil to save a drowning boy, and died a.d. 1550 of an ill- 
ness brought on by the attempt, at the age of fifty-five. 

Reflection. — God often rewards men for works that are pleas- 
ing in His sight by giving them grace and opportunity to do other 
works higher still. St. John of God used to attribute his conver- 
sion, and the graces which enabled him to do such great works, to 
his self-denying charity in Africa. 



MARCH 9.— ST. FRANCES OF ROME. 

g^RANCES was born at Rome in 1384. Her parents were of 
id high rank. They overruled her desire to become a nun, and 
at twelve years of age married her to Lorenzo Ponziano, a 
Roman noble. During the forty years of their married life they 
never had a disagreement. While spending her days in retirement 
and prayer, she attended promptly to every household duty, saying, 
" A married woman must leave God at the altar to find Him in her 
domestic cares;" and she once found the verse of a psalm in which 
she had been four times thus interrupted completed for her in 
letters of gold. Her ordinary food was dry bread. Secretly she 
would exchange with beggars good food for their hard crusts ; 
her drink was water, and her cup a human skull. During the in- 
vasion of Rome, in 1413, Ponziano was banished, his estates con- 
fiscated, his house destroyed, and his eldest son taken as a hostage. 
Frances saw in these losses only the finger of God, and blessed 



128 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March IO. 




His holy name. When peace was .restored Ponziano recovered 
his estates, and Frances founded the Oblates. After her husband's 
death, barefoot, and with a cord about her neck, she begged ad- 
mission to the community, and was soon elected Superioress. She 
lived always in the presence of God, and amongst many visions 
was given constant sight of her angel guardian, who shed such a 
brightness around him that the Saint could read her midnight 
Office by this light alone. He shielded her in the hour of temp- 
tation, and directed her in every good act. But when she was be- 
trayed into some defect, he faded from her sight ; and when some 
light words were spoken before her, he covered his face in shame. 
She died on the day she had foretold, March 9th, 1440. 

Reflection. — God has appointed an angel to guard each one 
of us, to whose warnings we are bound to attend. Let us listen to 
his voice here, and we shall see him hereafter, when he leads us 
before the throne of God. 

MARCH 10.— THE FORTY MARTYRS OF SEBASTE. 

HE FORTY MARTYRS were soldiers quartered at Sebaste, in 
Armenia, about the year 320. When their legion was ordered 
to offer sacrifice they separated themselves from the rest, 
and formed a company of martyrs. After they had been torn by 




March io.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



I2 9 



scourges and iron hooks they were chained together, and led to a 
lingering death. It was a cruel winter, and they were condemned 
to he naked on the icy surface of a pond in the open air till thev 
were frozen to death. But they ran undismayed to the place of 
their combat, joyfully stripped off their garments, and with one 
voice besought God to keep their ranks unbroken « Forty " they 
cried, "we have come to combat; grant that forty may be 
crowned." There were warm baths hard by, ready for any one 
amongst them who would deny Christ. The'soldier who watched 
saw angels descending with thirty-nine crowns, and while he won- 




dered at the deficiency in the number, one of the confessors lost 
heart, renounced his faith, and, crawling to the fire, died body and 
soul at the spot where he expected relief. But the soldier was in- 
spired to confess Christ and take his place, and again the number 
of forty was complete. They remained steadfast while their limbs 
grew stiff and frozen, and died one by one. Among the Forty 
there was a young soldier who held out longest against the cold, 
and when the officers came to cart away the dead bodies they 
found him still breathing. They were moyed with pity, and 
wanted to leaye him aliye, in the hope that he would still change 
his mind. But his mother stood by, and this valiant woman could 
not bear to see her son separated from the band of martyrs. She 
exhorted him to persevere, and lifted his frozen body into the cart. 



130 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March II. 



He was just able to make a sign of recognition, and was borne 
away, to be thrown into the flames with the dead bodies of his 
brethren. 

Reflection. — All who live the life of grace are one in Christ. 
But besides this there are many special ties — of religion, of com- 
munity life, or at least of aspirations in prayer, and pious works. 
Thank God if He has bound you to others by these spiritual ties ; 
remember the character you have to support, and pray that the 
bond which unites you here may last for eternity. 

MARCH ii.— ST. EULOGIUS, MARTYR. 

T. EULOGIUS was of a senatorian family of Cordova, at 
that time the capital of the Moors in Spain. Our Saint was 
educated among the clergy of the church of St. Zoilus, a 
martyr who suffered with nineteen others under Dioclesian. Here 
he distinguished himself by his virtue and learning; and being 
made priest, was placed at the head of the chief ecclesiastical 
school at Cordova. He joined assiduous watching, fasting, and 
prayer to his studies, .and his humility, mildness, and charity 
gained him the affection and respect of every one. During the 
persecution raised against the Christians in the year 850, St. Eu- 
logius was thrown into prison and there wrote his Exhortation 
to Martyrdom, addressed to the virgins Flora and Mary, who were 
beheaded the 24th of November, 851. Six days after their death 
Eulogius was set at liberty. In the year 852, several others suf- 
fered the like martyrdom. St. Eulogius encouraged all these mar- 
tyrs to their triumphs, and was the support of that distressed flock. 
The Archbishop of Toledo dying in 858, St. Eulogius was elect- 
ed to succeed him ; but there was some obstacle that hindered 
him from being consecrated, though he did not outlive his elec- 
tion two months. A virgin, by name Leocritia, of a noble family 
among the Moors, had been instructed from her infancy in the 
Christian religion by one of her relations, and privately baptized. 
Her father and mother used her very ill, and scourged her day and 
night to compel her to renounce the faith. Having made her con- 
dition known to St. Eulogius and his sister Anulona, intimating 
that she desired to go where she might freely exercise her relig- 
ion, they secretly procured her the means of getting away, and 
concealed her for some time among faithful friends. But the mat- 
ter was at length discovered, and they were all brought before the 




March ii.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



131 



cadi, who threatened to have Eulogius scourged to death. The 
Saint told him that his torments would be of no avail, for he 
would never change his religion. Whereupon the cadi gave 
orders that he should be carried to the palace, and presented 
before the king's council. Eulogius began boldly to propose 
the truths of the gospel to them. But to prevent their hear- 
ing him, the council condemned him immediately to lose his 
head. As they were leading him to execution, one of the guards 
gave him a blow on the face for having spoken against Mahomet; 




he turned the other cheek, and patiently received a second. He 
received the stroke of death with great cheerfulness, on the nth 
of March, 859. St. Leocritia was beheaded four days after him, 
and her body thrown into the river Guadalquivir, but taken out 
by the Christians. 



Reflection. — Beg of God, through the intercession of these 
holy martyrs, the gift of perseverance. Their example will supply 
you with an admirable rule for obtaining this crowning gift. Re- 
member that you have renounced the world and the devil once for 
all at your baptism. Do not hesitate; do not look back; do not 
listen to suggestions against faith or virtue. But advance, day by 
day, along the road which you have chosen, to God, who is your 
portion forever. 



132 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 12. 



MARCH 12.— ST. GREGORY THE GREAT. 

/fej^ REGORY was a Roman of noble birth, and while still young 
^kyr was Governor of Rome. On his father's death he gave his 
great wealth to the poor, turned his house on the Ccelian 
Hill into a monastery, which now bears his name, and for some 
years lived as a perfect monk. The Pope drew him from his se- 
clusion to make him one of the seven deacons of Rome ; and he 
did great service to the Church for many years as what we now 
call Nuncio to the imperial court at Constantinople. While still 
a monk the Saint was struck with some boys who were exposed 




for sale in Rome, and heard with sorrow that they were Pagans. 
" And of what race are they ?" he asked. " They are Angles." 
" Worthy indeed to be Angels of God," said he ; "and of what 
province ?" " Of Deira," was the reply. " Truly must we rescue 
them from the wrath of God. And what is the name of their 
king?" " He is called Ella." " It is well," said Gregory ; "Alleluia 
must be sung in their land to God." He at once got leave from 
the Pope, and had set out to convert the English, when the mur- 
murs of the people led the Pope to recall him. Still the Angles 
were not forgotten, and one of the Saint's first cares as Pope was 
to send from his own monastery St. Augustine and other monks to 
England. On the death of Pope Pelagius II., Gregory was com- 



March 13.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



133 



pelled to take government of the Church, and for fourteen years 
his pontificate was a perfect model of ecclesiastical rule. He healed 
schisms, revived discipline ; saved Italy by converting the wild 
Arian Lombards who were laying it waste ; aided in the conver- 
sion of the Spanish and French Goths, who were also Arians ; and 
kindled anew in Britain the light of the Faith which the English 
had put out in blood. He set in order the Church's prayers and 
chant, guided and consoled her pastors with innumerable letters, 
and preached incessantly, most effectually by his own example. He 
died a.d. 604, worn out by austerities and toils ; and the Church 
reckons him one of her four great doctors, and reveres him as St. 
Gregory the Great. 

Reflection. — The champions of faith prove the truth of their 
teaching no less by the holiness of their lives than by the force of 
their arguments. Never forget that to convert others you must 
first see to your own soul. 



jTjo? UPHRASIA was the daughter of pious and noble parents. 



£jj After the death of her father, his widow withdrew privately 



with her little daughter, into Egypt, where she was possessed 
of a very large estate. In that country she fixed her abode near 
a holy monastery of one hundred and thirty nuns. The young 
Euphrasia, at seven years of age, begged that she might be 
permitted to serve God in this monastery. The pious mother 
on hearing this wept for joy, and not long after presented her 
child to the abbess, who, taking up an image of Christ, gave it 
to Euphrasia. The tender virgin kissed it, saying, " By vow I con- 
secrate myself to Christ." Then the mother led her before an im- 
age of our Redeemer, and lifting up her hands to heaven said, 
" Lord Jesus Christ, receive this child under your special protection. 
You alone doth she love and seek : to you doth she recommend 
herself." Then leaving her in the hands of the abbess, she went 
out of the monastery weeping. Some time after this the good 
mother fell sick, and soon slept in peace. Upon the news of her 
death, the Emperor Theodosius sent for the noble virgin to court, 
having promised her in marriage to a favorite young senator. But 
the virgin wrote him refusing the alliance, repeating her vow of 
virginity, and requesting that her estates should be sold and divided 
among the poor, and all her slaves set at liberty. The Emperor 



MARCH 13.— ST. EUPHRASIA, VIRGIN. 




134 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 14. 




punctually executed all she desired, a little before his death in 395. 
St. Euphrasia was a perfect pattern of humility, meekness, and 
charity. If she found herself assaulted by any temptation, she im- 
mediately sought the advice of the abbess, who often enjoined her 
on such occasions some humbling and painful penitential labor ; 
as sometimes to carry great stones from one place to another ; 
which employment she once, under an obstinate assault, continued 
thirty days together with wonderful simplicity, till the devil, being 
vanquished by her humble obedience and chastisement of her 
body, left her in peace. She was favored with miracles both 
before and after her death, which happened in the year 410, and 
the thirtieth of her age. 

MARCH 14.— ST. MAUD, QUEEN. 

HIS princess was daughter of Theodoric, a powerful Saxon 
count. Her parents placed her very young in the monas- 
tery of Erford, of which her grandmother Maud was then 
abbess. Our Saint remained in that house, an accomplished model 
of all virtues, till her parents married her to Henry, son of Otho, 
Duke of Saxony, in 913, who was afterwards chosen king of Ger- 
many. He was a pious and victorious prince, and very tender of 
his subjects. Whilst by his arms he checked the insolence of the 




March 14.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



135 



Hungarians and Danes, and enlarged his dominions by adding to 
them Bavaria, Maud gained domestic victories over her spiritual 
enemies more worthy of a Christian, and far greater in the eyes 
of heaven. She nourished the precious seeds of devotion and 
humility in her heart by assiduous prayer and meditation. It 
was her delight to visit, comfort, and exhort the sick and the 
afflicted ; to serve and instruct the poor, and to afford her chari- 
table succors to prisoners. Her husband, edified by her example, 
concurred with her in every pious undertaking which she pro- 
jected. After twenty-three years' marriage, God was pleased to 




call the king to himself, 936. Maud, during his sickness, went to 
the church to pour forth her soul in prayer for him at the foot of 
the altar. As soon as she understood, by the tears and cries of the 
people, that he had expired, she called for a priest that was fasting 
to offer the holy sacrifice for his soul. She had three sons ; Otho, 
afterward emperor; Henry, Duke of Bavaria, and St. Brunn, Arch- 
bishop of Cologne. Otho was crowned king of Germany in 937, 
and emperor at Rome in 962, after his victories over the Bohe- 
mians and Lombards. The two oldest sons conspired to strip Maud 
of her dowry, on the unjust pretence that she had squandered 
the revenues of the state on the poor. The unnatural princes at 
length repented of their injustice, and restored to her all that had 
been taken from her. She then became more liberal in her alms 



136 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 15. 



than ever, and founded many churches, with five monasteries. In 
her last sickness she made her confession to her grandson William, 
the Archbishop of Mentz, who yet died twelve days before her, on 
his road home. She again made a public confession before the 
priests and monks of the place, received a second time the last 
sacraments, and lying on a sackcloth, with ashes on her head, died 
on the 14th of March in 968. 

Reflection. — The beginning of true virtue is most ardently to 
desire it, and to ask it of God with the utmost assiduity and ear- 
nestness. Fervent prayer, holy meditation, and reading pious 
books, are the principal means by which this virtue is to be con- 
stantly improved, and the interior life of the soul to be strength- 
ened. 

MARCH 15.— ST. ZACHARY, POPE. 

fT. ZACHARY succeeded Gregory III., in 741, and was a 
man of singular meekness and goodness. He loved the 
clergy and people of Rome to that degree that he hazarded 
his life for them on occasion of the troubles which Italy fell into 




by the rebellion of the Dukes of Spoletto and Benevento against 
King Luitprand. Out of respect to his sanctity and dignity, that 
king restored to the Church of Rome all the places which belonged 



March 16.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



37 



to it, and sent back the captives without ransom. The Lombards 
were moved to tears at the devotion with which they heard him 
perform the divine service. The zeal and prudence of this holy 
Pope appeared in many wholesome regulations, which he had 
made to reform or settle the discipline and peace of several 
churches. St. Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, wrote to him 
against a certain priest, named Virgilius ; that he labored to sow 
the seeds of discord between him and Odilo, Duke of Bavaria, and 
taught, besides, many errors. Zachary ordered that Virgilius should 
be sent to Rome, that his doctrine might be examined. It seems 
that he cleared himself ; for we find this same Virgilius soon after 
made Bishop of Salzburgh. Certain Venetian merchants having 
bought at Rome many slaves to sell to the Moors in Africa, St. 
Zachary forbade such an iniquitous traffic, and paying the mer- 
chants their price, gave the slaves their liberty. He adorned 
Rome with sacred buildings, and with great foundations in favor 
of the poor and pilgrims, and gave every year a considerable sum 
to furnish oil for the lamps in St. Peter's Church. He died in 752, 
in the month of March. 

MARCH 16.— SS. ABRAHAM AND MARY. 

tBRAHAM was a rich nobleman of Edessa. At his parents' 
desire he married, but escaped to a cell near the city as 
soon as the feast was over. He walled up the cell-door, 
leaving only a small window through which he received his food. 
There for fifty years he sang God's praises and implored mercy 
for himself and for all men. The wealth which fell to him on his 
parents' death he gave to the poor. As many sought him for 
advice and consolation, the Bishop of Edessa, in spite of his hu- 
mility, ordained him priest. St. Abraham was sent, soon after his 
ordination, to an idolatrous city which had hitherto been deaf to 
every messenger. He was insulted, beaten, and three times 
banished, but he returned each time with fresh zeal. For three 
years he pleaded with God for those souls, and in the end pre- 
vailed. Every citizen came to him for baptism. After providing 
for their spiritual needs, he went back to his cell more than ever 
convinced of the power of prayer. His brother died, leaving an 
only daughter, Mary, to the Saint's care. He placed her in a cell 
near his own, and devoted himself to training her in perfection. 
After twenty years of innocence she fell, and fled in despair to a 
distant city, where she drowned the voice of conscience in sin. 



138 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [March 17. 




The Saint and his friend St. Ephrem prayed earnestly for her dur- 
ing two years. Then he went disguised to seek the lost sheep, 
and had the joy of bringing her back to the desert a true penitent. 
She received the gift of miracles, and her countenance after death 
shone as the sun. St. Abraham died five years before her, about 
a.d. 360. All Edessa came for his last blessing, and to secure his 
relics. 

Reflection. — Oh ! that we realized the omnipotence of prayer. 
Every soul was created to glorify God eternally ; and it is in the 
power of every one to add by the salvation of his neighbor to 
the glory of God. Let us make good use of this talent of prayer, 
lest our brother's blood be required of us at the last. 

MARCH 17— ST. PATRICK, BISHOP, APOSTLE OF IRELAND. 

fF the virtue of children reflects an honor on their parents, much 
more justly is the name of St. Patrick rendered illustrious by 
the innumerable lights of sanctity with which the Church of 
Ireland shone during many ages, and by the colonies of Saints 
with which it peopled many foreign countries ; for, under God, 
its inhabitants derived from their glorious apostle the streams of 
that eminent sanctity by which they were long conspicuous to 
the whole world. St. Patrick was born towards the close of the 



March 17.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



J 39 



fourth century, in a village called Bonaven Tabernise, which 
seems to be the town of Kilpatrick, on the mouth of the river 
Clyde, in Scotland, between Dumbarton and Glasgow. He calls 
himself both a Briton and a Roman, or of a mixed extraction, and 
says his father was of a good family named Calphurnius, and a 
denizen of a neighboring city of the Romans, who not long after 
abandoned Britain, in 409. Some writers call his mother Con- 
chessa, and say she was niece to St. Martin of Tours. 

In his sixteenth year he was carried into captivity by certain 
barbarians who took him into Ireland, where he was obliged to 




keep cattle on the mountains and in the forests, in hunger and 
nakedness, amidst snows, rain, and ice. Whilst he lived in this 
suffering condition, God had pity on his soul, and quickened him 
to a sense of his duty by the impulse of a strong interior grace. 
The young man had recourse to Him with his whole heart in fer- 
vent prayer and fasting ; and from that time faith and the love of 
God acquired continually new strength in his tender soul. After 
six months spent in slavery under the same master, St. Patrick 
was admonished by God in a dream to return to his own coun- 
try, and informed that a ship was then ready to sail thither. 
He went at once to the sea coast, though at a great distance, and 
found the vessel ; but could not obtain his passage, probably 
for want of money. The Saint returned towards his hut, 



140 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March I/* 



praying as he went, but the sailors, though pagans, called him 
back, and took him on board. After three days' sail they made 
land, but wandered twenty-seven days through deserts, and were a 
long while distressed for want of provisions, finding nothing to 
eat. Patrick had often spoken to the company on the infinite 
power of God, they therefore asked him why he did not pray for 
relief. Animated by a strong faith, he assured them that if they 
would address themselves with their whole hearts to the true God, 
He would hear and succor them. They did so, and on the same 
day met with a herd of swine. From that time provisions never 
failed them, till on the twenty-seventh day they came into a coun- 
try that was cultivated and inhabited. 

Some years afterward he was again led captive, but recovered 
his liberty after two months. When he was at home with his pa- 
rents, God manifested to him, by divers visions, that he destined 
him to the great work of the conversion of Ireland. The writers 
of his life say that after his second captivity he travelled into. 
Gaul and Italy, and saw St. Martin, St. Germanus of Auxerre, 
and Pope Celestine, and that he received his mission and the 
apostolical benediction from this Pope, who died in 432. It is. 
certain that he spent many years in preparing himself for his sacred 
calling. Great opposition was made against his episcopal conse- 
cration and mission, both by his own relations and by the clergy. 
These made him great offers in order to detain him among them,, 
and endeavored to affright him by exaggerating the dangers to. 
which he exposed himself amidst the enemies of the Romans and 
Britons, who did not know God. All these temptations threw the 
Saint into great perplexities, but the Lord, whose will he consulted 
by earnest prayer, supported him, and he persevered in his resolu- 
tion. He forsook his family, sold his birthright and dignity, to. 
serve strangers, and consecrated his soul to God, to carry His 
name to the ends of the earth. In this disposition he passed into Ire- 
land, to preach the Gospel, where the worship of idols still gener- 
ally reigned. He devoted himself entirely to the salvation of 
these barbarians. He travelled over the whole island, penetrating 
into the remotest corners, and such was the fruit of his preachings 
and sufferings that he baptized an infinite number of people. 
He ordained everywhere clergymen, induced women to live in 
holy widowhood and continence, consecrated virgins to Christ, 
and instituted monks. He took nothing from the many thousands, 
whom he baptized, and often gave back the little presents which 
some laid on the altar, choosing rather to mortify the fervent thani 



March 17.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



to scandalize the weak or the infidels. He gave freely of his own, 
however, both to Pagans and Christians, distributed large alms to 
the poor in the provinces where he passed, made presents to the 
kings, judging that necessary for the progress of the Gospel, and 
maintained and educated many children, whom he trained up to 
serve at the altar. The happy success of his labors cost him many 
persecutions. 

A certain prince named Corotick, a Christian in name only, 
disturbed the peace of his flock. This tyrant, having made a 
descent into Ireland, plundered the country where St. Patrick had 
been just conferring confirmation on a great number of neo- 
phytes, who were yet in their white garments after baptism. 
Corotick massacred many, and carried away others, whom he 
sold to the infidel Picts or Scots. The next day the Saint sent the 
barbarian a letter entreating him to restore the Christian captives, 
and at least part of the booty he had taken, that the poor people 
might not perish for want; but was only answered by railleries. 
The Saint, therefore, wrote with his own hand a letter. In it he 
styles himself a sinner and an ignorant man ; he declares, never- 
theless, that he is established bishop of Ireland, and pronounces 
Corotick and the other parricides and accomplices separated from 
him and from Jesus Christ, whose place he holds, forbidding any 
to eat with them, or to receive their alms, till they should have 
satisfied God by the tears of sincere penance, and restored the 
servants of Jesus Christ to their liberty. This letter expresses his 
most tender love for his flock, and his grief for those who had 
been slain, yet mingled with joy, because they reign with the 
prophets, apostles, and martyrs. Jocelin assures us that Corotick 
was overtaken by the divine vengeance. 

St. Patrick held several councils to settle the discipline of the 
Church which he had planted. St. Bernard and the tradition of 
the country testify that St. Patrick fixed his metropolitan see at 
Armagh. He established some other bishops, as appears by his 
Council and other monuments. He not only converted the whole 
country by his preaching and wonderful miracles, but also culti- 
vated this vineyard with so fruitful a benediction and increase from 
heaven, as to render Ireland a most flourishing garden in the 
Church of God, and a country of Saints. 

Many particulars are related of the labors of St. Patrick, which 
we pass over. In the first year of his mission he attempted to 
preach Christ in the general assembly of the kings and states of 
all Ireland, held yearly at Tara, the residence of the chief king, 



142 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 18. 



styled the monarch of the whole island, and the principal seat of 
the Druids or priests, and their paganish rites. The son of Neill, 
the chief monarch, declared himself against the preacher ; how- 
ever, Patrick converted several, and, on his road to that place, the 
father of St. Benignus, his immediate successor in the see of 
Armagh, He afterward converted and baptized the kings of Dub- 
lin and Munster, and the seven sons of the king of Connaught, with 
the greatest part of their subjects, and before his death almost the 
whole island. He founded a monastery at Armagh ; another called 
Domnach-Padraig, or Patrick's Church ; also a third, named Sab- 
hal-Padraig, and filled the country with churches and schools of 
piety and learning, the reputation of which, for the three succeed- 
ing centuries, drew many foreigners into Ireland. He died and 
was buried at Down, in Ulster. His body was found there in a 
church of his name in 1185, and translated to another part of the 
same church. 

Ireland is the nursery whence St. Patrick sent forth his mission- 
aries and teachers. Glastonbury and Lindisfarne, Ripon and 
Malmesbury, bear testimony to the labors of Irish priests and 
bishops for the conversion of England! Iona is to this day the 
most venerated spot in Scotland. Columban, Fiacre, Gall, and 
many others evangelized the " rough places" of France and Swit- 
zerland. America and Australia, in modern times, owe their 
Christianity to the faith and zeal of the sons and daughters of St. 
Patrick. 

Reflection. — By the instrumentality of St. Patrick the faith 
is now as fresh in Ireland, even in this cold nineteenth century, 
as when it was first planted. Ask him to obtain for you the 
special grace of his children, to prefer the loss of every earthly 
good to the least compromise in matters of faith. 

MARCH 18.— ST. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM. 

YRIL was born at or near the city of Jerusalem, about the 
year 315. He was ordained priest by St. Maximus, who gave 
him the important charge of instructing and preparing the 
candidates for baptism. This charge he held for several years, 
and we still have one series of his instructions, given in the year 
347 or 348. They are of singular interest as being the earliest re- 
cord of the systematic teaching of the Church on the Creed and 
Sacraments, and as having been given in the church built by Con- 




March 18.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



stantine on Mount Calvary. They are solid, simple, profound; 
saturated with Holy Scripture ; exact, precise, and terse ; and, as 
a witness and exposition of the Catholic Faith, invaluable. On the 
death of St. Maximus Cyril was chosen Bishop of Jerusalem. At 
the beginning of his episcopate a cross was seen in the air reaching 
from Mount Calvary to Mount Olivet, and so bright that it shone 
at noonday. St. Cyril gave an account of it to the emperor ; and 
the faithful regarded it as a presage of victory over the Arian her- 
etics. While Cyril was bishop, the apostate Julian resolved to fal- 
sify the words of our Lord by rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem. 




He employed the power and resources of a Roman emperor ; the 
Jews thronged enthusiastically to him and gave munificently. But 
Cyril was unmoved. "The word of God abides," he said; " one 
stone shall not be laid on another." When the attempt was made, 
a heathen writer tells us that horrible flames came forth from the 
earth, rendering the place inaccessible to the scorched and scared 
workmen. The attempt was made again and again, and then 
abandoned in despair. Soon after, the emperor perished misera- 
bly in a war against the Persians, and the Church had rest. Like 
the other great bishops of his time, he was persecuted, and driven 
once and again from his see ; but on the death of the Arian Em- 
peror Valens he returned to Jerusalem. He was present at the 



i 4 4 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 19. 



second General Council at Constantinople, and died in peace a.d. 
386, after a troubled episcopate of thirty-five years. 

Reflection. — " As a stout staff," says St. John Chrysostom, 
" supports the trembling limbs of a feeble old man, so does faith 
sustain our vacillating mind, lest it be tossed about by sinful 
hesitation and perplexity." 

MARCH 19.— ST. JOSEPH, SPOUSE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN 
AND PATRON OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH. 

fT. JOSEPH was by birth of the royal family of David, but 
was living in humble obscurity as a carpenter, when God 
raised him to the highest sanctity, and fitted him to be the 
spouse of His Virgin Mother, and foster-father and guardian of 
the Incarnate Word. Joseph, says the Holy Scripture, was a just 
man; he was innocent and pure, as became the husband of Mary; 
he was gentle and tender, as one worthy to be named the father 
of Jesus ; he was prudent and a lover of silence, as became the 




master of the holy house; above all, he was faithful and obedient 
to Divine calls. His conversation was with angels rather than 
with men. When he learnt that Mary bore within her womb the 
Lord of Heaven, he feared to take her as his wife ; but an angel 



March 19.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



H5 



bade him fear not, and all doubts vanished. When Herod sought 
the life of the Divine Infant, an angel told Joseph in a dream to 
fly with the Child and His Mother into Egypt. Joseph at once 
arose and obeyed. This sudden and unexpected flight must have 
exposed Joseph to many inconveniences and sufferings in so long 
a journey with' a little babe and a tender virgin, the greater part 
of the way being through deserts, and among strangers ; yet he 
alleges no excuses, nor inquires at what time they were to return. 
St. Chrysostom observes that God treats thus all his servants, send- 
ing them frequent trials to clear their hearts from the rust of self- 
love, but intermixing seasons of consolation. " Joseph," says he, 
" is anxious on seeing the Virgin with child ; an angel removes 
that fear ; he rejoices at the Child's birth, but a great fear succeeds ; 
the furious king seeks to destroy the Child, and the whole city is in 
an uproar to take away His life. This is followed by another joy, 
the adoration of the Magi ; a new sorrow then arises ; he is or- 
dered to fly into a foreign unknown country, without help or ac- 
quaintance." It is the opinion of the fathers that upon their en- 
tering Egypt, at the presence of the child Jesus, all the oracles of 
that superstitious country were struck dumb, and the statues of their 
gods trembled, and in many places fell to the ground. The fathers 
also attribute to this holy visit the spiritual benediction poured on 
that country, which made it for many ages most fruitful in Saints. 
After the death of King Herod, of which St. Joseph was informed 
in another vision, God ordered him to return with the Child and 
His Mother into the land of Israel, which our Saint readily obeyed. 
But when he arrived in Judea, hearing that Archelaus succeeded 
Herod in that part of the country, apprehensive he might be in- 
fected with his father's vices, he feared on that account to settle 
there, as he would otherwise probably have done for the education 
of the Child. And therefore, being directed by God in another 
vision, he retired into the dominions of Herod Antipas, in Galilee, 
to his former habitation in Nazareth. St. Joseph being a strict ob- 
server of the Mosaic law, in conformity to its direction annually re- 
paired to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Our Saviour, now 
in the twelfth year of his age, accompanied his parents thither : 
having performed the usual ceremonies of the feast, they were re- 
turning with many of their neighbors and acquaintance towards 
Galilee ; and never doubting but that Jesus was with some of the 
company, they travelled on for a whole day's journey before 
they discovered that He was not with them. But when night 
came on, and they could hear no tidings of Him among their kin- 



i 4 6 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 20. 



dred and acquaintance, they, in the deepest affliction, returned with 
the utmost speed to Jerusalem. After an anxious search of three 
days they found Him in the temple, discoursing with the learned 
doctors of the law, and asking them such questions as raised the ad- 
miration of all that heard Him, and made them astonished at the 
ripeness of His understanding ; nor were His parents less surprised 
on this occasion. When His mother told Him with what grief and 
earnestness they had sought Him, and asked, " Son, why hast thou 
thus dealt with us ? Behold, thy father and I sought thee in great 
affliction of mind ;" she received for answer, " How is it that you 
sought me ? did you not know that I must be about my Father's 
business ?" But though thus staying in the temple unknown to His 
parents, in all other things He was obedient to them, returning 
with them to Nazareth, and there living in all dutiful subjection to 
them. As no further mention is made of St. Joseph, he must have 
died before the marriage of Cana and the beginning of our Divine 
Saviour's ministry. We cannot doubt that he had the happiness 
of Jesus and Mary attending at his death, praying by him, assist- 
ing and comforting him in his last moments. Whence he is par- 
ticularly invoked for the great grace of a happy death, and the 
spiritual presence of Jesus in that hour. 

Reflection. — St. Joseph, the shadow of the Eternal Father upon 
earth, the protector of Jesus in his home at Nazareth, and a lover 
of all children for the sake of the Holy Child, should be the 
chosen guardian and pattern of every true Christian family. 

MARCH 20.— ST. WULFRAN, ARCHBISHOP. 

IS father was an officer in the armies of King Dagobert, and 
the Saint spent some years in the court of King Clotaire III., 
and of his mother St. Bathildes, but occupied his heart only 
on God, despising worldly greatness as empty and dangerous, and 
daily advancing in virtue. His estate of Maurilly he bestowed on 
the Abbey of Fontenelle, or St. Vandrille, in Normandy. He was 
chosen and consecrated Archbishop of Sens in 682, which diocese 
he governed two years and a half with great zeal and sanctity. A 
tender compassion for the blindness of the idolaters of Friesland, 
and the example of the English zealous preachers in those parts, 
moved him to resign his bishopric, with proper advice, and after a 
retreat at Fontenelle to enter Friesland in quality of a poor mis- 
sionary priest. He baptized great multitudes, among them a son 



March 20.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



147 



of King Radbod, and drew the people from the barbarous custom 
of sacrificing men to idols. On a certain occasion, one Ovon, hav- 
ing been selected as a victim of a sacrifice to the heathen gods, St. 
Wulfran earnestly begged his life of King Radbod ; but the people 
ran tumultuously to the palace,and would not suffer what they called 
a sacrilege. After many words they consented, but on condition that 
Wulfran's God should save Ovon's life. The Saint betook himself 
to prayer ; the man, after hanging on the gibbet two hours, and being 
left for dead, fell to the ground by the breaking of the cord; being 
found alive he was given to the Saint, and became a monk and priest 




at Fontenelle. Wulfran also miraculously rescued two children 
from being drowned in honor of the idols. Radbod, who had 
been an eye-witness to this last miracle, promised to become a 
Christian ; but as he was going to step into the baptismal font he 
asked where the great number of his ancestors and nobles were in 
the next world. The Saint replied that hell is the portion of all who 
die guilty of idolatry. At which the prince refused to be baptized, 
saying he would go with the greater number. This tyrant sent 
afterward to St. Willebrord to treat with him about his conversion ; 
but before the arrival of the Saint was found dead. St. Wulfran 
retired to Fontenelle that he might prepare himself for death, and 
expired there on the 20th of April, 720. 



148 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 21. 



Reflection. — In every age the Catholic Church is a missionary 
Church. She has received the world for her inheritance, and in 
our own days many missioners have watered with their blood the 
lands in which they labored. Help the propagation of the Faith 
by alms, and above all by prayers. You will quicken your own 
faith, and gain a part in the merits of the glorious apostolate. 

MARCH 21.— ST. BENEDICT, ABBOT. 

T. BENEDICT, blessed by grace and in name, was born of a 
noble Italian family about 480. When a boy he was sent to 
Rome, and there placed in the public schools. Scared by the 
licentiousness of the Roman youth, he fled to the desert mountains 
of Subiaco, and was directed by the Holy Spirit into a cave, deep, 
craggy, and almost inaccessible. He lived there for three years, 




unknown to any one save the holy monk Romanus, who clothed him 
with the monastic habit and brought him food. But the fame of 
his sanctity soon gathered disciples round him. The rigor of his 
rule, however, drew on him the hatred of some of the monks, and 
one of them mixed poison with the abbot's drink. But when the 
Saint made the sign of the cross on the poisoned bowl, it broke and 
fell in pieces to the ground. After he had built twelve monasteries at 
Subiaco, he removed to Monte Cassino, where he founded an abbey, 



March 22.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 149 

in which he wrote his rule, and lived until death. By prayer he 
did all things : wrought miracles, saw visions, and prophesied. A 
peasant, whose boy had just died, ran in anguish to St. Benedict, 
crying out, ''Give me back my son!" The monks joined the 
poor man in his entreaties ; but the Saint replied, " Such miracles 
are not for us to work, but for the blessed Apostles. Why will 
you lay upon me a burden which my weakness cannot bear?" 
Moved at length by compassion he knelt down, and prostrating 
himself upon the body of the child prayed earnestly. Then ris- 
ing, he cried out, " Behold not, O Lord, my sins, but the faith of 
this man, who desireth the life of his son, and restore to the body 
that soul which Thou hast taken away." Hardly had he spoken 
when the child's body began to tremble, and taking it by the hand 
he restored it alive to its father. Six days before his death he 
ordered his grave to be opened, and fell ill of a fever. On the 
sixth day he requested to be borne into the chapel, and, having 
received the Body and Blood of Christ, with hands uplifted, and 
leaning on one of his disciples, he calmly expired in prayer on 
the 2 1 st of March, 543. 

Reflection. — The Saints never feared to undertake any work, 
however arduous, for God, because distrusting self they relied for 
assistance and support wholly upon prayer. 

MARCH 22.— ST. CATHARINE OF SWEDEN, VIRGIN. 

T. CATHARINE was daughter of Ulpho, prince of Nericia, 
in Sweden, and of St. Bridget. The love of God seemed 
almost to prevent in her the use of her reason. At seven 
'years of age she was placed in the nunnery of Risburgh, and 
educated in piety under the care of the holy abbess of that house. 
Being very beautiful, she was, by her father, contracted in mar- 
riage to Egard, a young nobleman of great virtue ; but the virgin 
persuaded him to join with her in making a mutual vow of per- 
petual chastity. By her discourses he became desirous only of 
heavenly graces, and, to draw them down upon his soul more 
abundantly, he readily acquiesced in the proposal. The happy 
couple, having but one heart and one desire, by a holy emulation 
excited each other to prayer, mortification, and works of charity. 
After the death of her father, St. Catharine, out of devotion to the 
passion of Christ, and to the relics of the martyrs, accompanied 
her mother in her pilgrimages and practices of devotion and pen- 
ance. After her death at Rome, in 1373, Catharine returned to 



150 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [March 23. 




Sweden, and died abbess of Vadzstena, or Vatzen, on the 24th of 
March, in 1381. For the last twenty-five years of her life she 
every day purified her soul by a sacramental confession of her 
sins. 



Reflection. — Whoever has to dwell in the world stands in need 
of great prudence; the Holy Scripture itself assures us that "the 
knowledge of the Holy is prudence." 



MARCH 23.— SS. VICTORIAN AND OTHERS, MARTYRS. 

UNER1C, the Arian king of the Vandals in Africa, succeed- 
ed his father Genseric in 477. He behaved himself at first 
with moderation towards the Catholics, but in 480 he began 
a grievous persecution of the clergy and holy virgins, which, in 
484, became general, and vast numbers of Catholics were put to 
death. Victorian, one of the principal lords of the kingdom, had 
been made governor of Carthage, with the Roman title of procon- 
sul. He was the wealthiest subject of the king, who placed great 
confidence in him, and he had ever behaved with an inviolable 
fidelity. The king, after he had published his cruel edicts, sent a 
message to the proconsul, promising, if he would conform to his 
religion, to heap on him the greatest wealth and the highest hon- 
ors which it was in the power of a prince to bestow. The pro- 




March 23.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



consul, who amidst the glittering pomps of the world perfectly 
understood its emptiness, made this generous answer : " Tell the 
king that I trust in Christ. His majesty may condemn me to any 
torments : but I shall never consent to renounce the Catholic 
Church in which I have been baptized. Even if there were no life 
after this, I would never be ungrateful and perfidious to God, 
who has granted me the happiness of knowing him, and be- 
stowed on me his most precious graces." The tyrant became 
furious at this answer: nor can the tortures be imagined which he 
caused the Saint to endure. Victorian suffered them with joy, and 




amidst them finished his glorious martyrdom. The Roman Mar- 
tyrology joins with him on this day four others who were crowned 
in the same persecution. Two brothers, who were apprehended 
for the faith, had promised each other, if possible, to die togeth- 
er; and they begged of God, as a favor, that they might both 
suffer the same torments. The persecutors hung them in the air 
with great weights at their feet. One of them, under the excess 
of pain, begged to be taken down for a little ease. His brother, 
fearing that this might move him to deny his faith, cried out from 
the rack, " God forbid, dear brother, that you should ask such a 
thing. Is this what we promised to Jesus Christ?" The other 
was so wonderfully encouraged that he cried out, " No, no ; I ask 
not to be released ; increase my tortures, exert all your cruelties 



152 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 24. 



till they are exhausted upon me." They were then burnt with red- 
hot plates of iron, and tormented so long that the executioners at 
last left them, saying, " Every body follows their example, no one 
now embraces our religion." This they said, chiefly, because, not- 
withstanding they had been so long and so grievously tormented, 
there were no scars or bruises to be seen upon them. Two mer- 
chants of Carthage, who both bore the name of Frumentius, suf- 
fered martyrdom about the same time. Among many glorious 
confessors at that time, one Liberatus, an eminent physician, was 
sent into banishment with his wife. He only grieved to see his 
infant children torn from him. His wife checked his tears by 
these words: "Think no more of them, Jesus Christ himself will 
have care of them, and protect their souls." Whilst in prison she 
was told that her husband had conformed : accordingly, when she 
met him at the bar before the judge, she upbraided him in open 
court for having basely abandoned God; but discovered by his 
answer that a cheat had been put upon her to deceive her into 
her ruin. Twelve young children, when dragged away by the 
persecutors, held their companions by the knees till they were 
torn away by violence. They were most cruelly beaten and 
scourged every day for a long time ; yet by God's grace every one 
of them persevered to the end of the persecution firm in the faith. 



7 AIL, flowers of the martyrs »" the Church sings in her Office 



of the Holy Innocents, who were the first to die for Christ; 



and in every age mere children and infants have gloriously 
confessed His name. In 1472, the Jews in the city of Trent deter- 
mined to vent their hate against the crucified by slaying a Chris- 
tian child at the coming Passover, and Tobias, one of their num- 
ber, was deputed to entrap a victim. He found a bright, smiling 
boy named Simon playing outside his home, with no one guarding 
him. Tobias patted the little fellow's cheek, and coaxed him to 
take his hand. The boy, who was not two years old, did so ; but 
he began to call and cry for his mother when he found himself 
being led from home. Then Tobias gave him a bright coin to 
look at, and with many kind caresses silenced his grief, and con- 
ducted him securely to his house. At midnight on Holy Thurs- 
day, the work of butchery began. Having gagged his mouth, they 
held his arms in the form of a cross, while they pierced his tender 
body with awls and bodkins in blasphemous mockery of the suf- 



MARCH 24.— ST. SIMON, INFANT MARTYR. 




March 24.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



153 



ferings of Jesus Christ. After an hour's torture, the little martyr 
lifted his eyes to heaven, and gave up his innocent soul. The 
Jews cast his body into the river ; but their crime was discovered 
and punished, while the holy relics were enshrined in St. Peter's 
Church at Trent, where they have worked many miracles. 




William of Norwich is another of these children martyrs. 
His parents were simple country folk, but his mother was taught 
by a vision to expect a Saint in her son. As a boy he fasted 
thrice a week and prayed constantly, and he was only an appren- 
tice twelve years of age, at a tanner's in Norwich, when he won 
his crown. A little before Easter, a.d. 1 137, he was enticed into 
a Jew's house, and was there gagged, bound, and crucified in 
hatred of Christ. Five years passed before the body was found, 
when it was buried as a saintly relic in the cathedral churchyard. 
A rose-tree planted hard by flowered miraculously in midwinter, 
and all manner of sick persons were healed of their diseases at 
St. William's shrine. 

Reflection. — Learn from the infant martyrs that, however 
weak you may be, you still can suffer for Christ's sake, and, by 
suffering, win your crown. 



154 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 25. 



MARCH 25. — THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE BLESSED 
VIRGIN MARY. 

HIS great festival takes its name from the happy tidings 
brought by the angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin, con- 
cerning the Incarnation of the Son of God. It commem- 
orates the most important embassy that was ever known : an 
embassy sent by the King of kings, performed by one of the 
chief princes of His heavenly court ; directed, not to the great 
ones of this earth, but to a poor, unknown virgin, who, being en- 
dowed with the most angelic purity of soul and body, being 
withal perfectly humble and devoted to God, was greater in His 
eyes than the mightiest monarch in the world. When the Son of 
God became man, He could have taken upon Him our nature 
without the co-operation of any creature ; but He was pleased to 
be born of a woman. In the choice of her whom He raised to this 
most sublime of all dignities, He pitched upon the one who, by 
the riches of His grace and virtues, was of all others the most holy 
and the most perfect. The design of this embassy of the arch- 
angel is to give a Saviour to the world, a victim of propitiation 
to the sinner, a model to the just, a son to this Virgin, remaining 
still a virgin, and a new nature to the Son of God, the nature of 
man, capable of suffering pain and anguish in order to satisfy 
God's justice for our transgressions. 

When the Angel appeared to Mary and addressed her, the 
Blessed Virgin was troubled; not at the angel's appearance, says 
St. Ambrose, for heavenly visions and a commerce with the 
blessed spirits had been familiar to her. But what alarmed her, 
lie says, was the angel's appearing in human form, in the shape 
of a young man. What might add to her fright on the occasion, 
was his addressing her in words of praise. Mary, guarded by her 
modesty, is in confusion at expressions of this sort, and dreads 
the least appearance of deluding flattery. Such high commenda- 
tions make her cautious how she answers, till in silence she has 
more fully considered of the matter : " She revolved in her mind," 
says St. Luke, "what manner of salutation this should be." Ah! 
what numbers of innocent souls have been corrupted for want of 
using the like precautions ! 

The angel, to calm her, says: " Fear not, Mary, for thou hast 
found favor before God." He then informs her that she is to con- 
ceive and bring forth a son whose name shall be Jesus, who shall 
be great, and the Son of the Most High, and possessed of the 




March 25.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



155 



throne of David, her illustrious ancestor. Mary, out of a just 
concern to know how she may comply with the will of God with- 
out prejudice to her vow of virginity, inquires, " How shall this 
be?" Nor does she give her consent till the heavenly messenger 
acquaints her that it is to be a work of the Holy Ghost, who in 
making her fruitful, will not intrench in the least upon her vir- 
ginal purity. 

In submission, therefore, to God's will, without any further 
inquiries, she expresses her assent in these humble but powerful 
words : " Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me 




according to thy word." What faith and confidence does her an- 
swer express ! What profound humility and perfect obedience ! 



Reflection. — From the example of the Blessed Virgin in this 
mystery, how ardent a love ought we to conceive of purity and 
humility ! The Holy Ghost is invited by purity to dwell in souls, 
but is chased away by the filth of the contrary vice. Humility is 
the foundation of a spiritual life. By it Mary was prepared for 
the extraordinary graces, and all virtues with which she was 
enriched, and for the eminent dignity of Mother of God. 



1 5 6 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 26. 



MARCH 26. — ST. LUDGER, BISHOP. 

T. LUDGER was born in Friesland about the year 743. His 
father, a nobleman of the first rank, at the child's own re- 
quest, committed him very young to the care of St. Gre- 
gory, the disciple of St. Boniface, and his successor in the govern- 
ment of the see of Utrecht. Gregory educated him in his monas- 
tery, and gave him the clerical tonsure. Ludger, desirous of fur- 
ther improvement, passed over into England, and spent four years 
and a half under Alcuin, who was rector of a famous school at 
York. In 773 he returned home, and St. Gregory dying in 776, 
his successor, Alberic, compelled our Saint to receive the holy 
order of priesthood, and employed him for several years in 
preaching the word of God in Friesland, where he converted 
great numbers, founded several monasteries, and built many 
churches. The pagan Saxons ravaging the country, Ludger tra- 
velled to Rome to consult Pope Adrian II. what course to take, 
and what he thought God required of him. He then retired for 
three years and a half to Mount Cassino, where he wore the habit 
of the order, and conformed to the practice of the rule during his 
stay, but made no religious vows. In 787, Charlemagne overcame 
the Saxons, and conquered Friesland and the coast of the Ger- 
manic Ocean as far as Denmark. Ludger hearing this, returned 
into East Friesland, where he converted the Saxons to the faith ; 
as he also did the province of Westphalia. He founded the mon- 
astery of Werden, twenty-nine miles from Cologne. In 802, Hil- 
debald, archbishop of Cologne, not regarding his strenuous re- 
sistance, ordained him bishop of Munster. He joined in his 
diocese five cantons of Friesland which he had converted, and also 
founded the monastery of Helmstad, in the duchy of Brunswick. 

Being accused to the Emperor Charlemagne of wasting his in- 
come, and neglecting the embellishment of churches, this prince 
ordered him to appear at court. The morning after his arrival, 
the emperor's chamberlain brought him word that his attendance 
was required. The Saint, being then at his prayers, told the officer 
that he would follow him as soon as he had finished them. He 
was sent for three several times before he was ready, which the 
courtiers represented as a contempt of his majesty, and the em- 
peror, with some emotion, asked him why he had made him wait 
so long, though he had sent for him so often. The Bishop an- 
swered, that though he had the most profound respect for his 
majesty, yet God was infinitely above him; that whilst we are 




March 26.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



157 



occupied with Him, it is our duty to forget every thing else. This 
answer made such an impression on the emperor, that he dis- 
missed him with honor, and disgraced his accusers. St. Ludger 
was favored with the gift of miracles and prophecy. His last 
sickness, though violent, did not hinder him from continuing his 
functions to the very last day of his life, which was Passion-Sun- 
day, on which day he preached very early in the morning, said 
mass towards nine, and preached again before night, foretelling 
to those that were about him, that he should die the following 
night, and fixing upon a place in his monastery of Werden where 




he chose to be interred. He died accordingly on the 26th of 
March, at midnight. 



Reflection. — Prayer is an action so sublime and supernatural, 
that the Church in her canonical hours teaches us to begin it by a 
fervent petition of grace to perform it well. What an insolence 
and mockery is it to join with this petition an open disrespect and 
a neglect of all necessary precautions against distractions ! We 
ought never to appear before God, to tender him our homages or 
supplications, without trembling, and without being deaf to all 
creatures, and shutting all our senses to every object that can dis- 
tract our minds from God. 



158 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 27. 



MARCH 27.— ST. JOHN OF EGYPT. 

tILL he was twenty-five, John worked as a carpenter with his 
father. Then feeling a call from God, he left the world, 
and committed himself to a holy solitary in the desert. His 
master tried his spirit by many unreasonable commands, bidding 
him roll the hard rocks, tend dead trees, and the like. John 
obeyed in all things with the simplicity of a child. After a care- 
ful training of sixteen years, he withdrew to the top of a steep 
cliff to think only of God and his soul. The more he knew of 
himself, the more he distrusted himself. For the last fifty years, 




therefore, he never saw women, and seldom men. The result of 
this vigilance and purity was threefold : a holy joy and cheerful- 
ness which consoled all who conversed with him ; perfect obe- 
dience to superiors ; and in return for this, authority over crea- 
tures, whom he had forsaken for the Creator. St. Augustine tells 
us of his appearing in a vision to a holy woman whose sight he 
had restored, to avoid seeing her face to face. Devils assailed 
him continually, but John never ceased his prayer. From his 
long communings with God, he turned to men with gifts of heal- 
ing and prophecy. Twice each week he spoke through a window 
with those who came to him, blessing oil for their sick, and pre- 
dicting things to come. A deacon came to him in disguise, and 



March 28.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



159 



he reverently kissed his hand. To the Emperor Theodosius he 
foretold his future victories and the time of his death. The three 
last days of his life John gave wholly to God : on the third he 
was found on his knees as if in prayer, but his soul was with the 
blessed. He died a.d. 394. 

Reflection. — The Saints examine themselves by the perfec- 
tions of God, and do penance. We judge our conduct by the 
standard of other men, and rest satisfied with it. Yet it is by the 
divine holiness alone that we shall be judged when we die. 



MARCH 28.— ST. GONTRAN, KING. 

fT. GONTRAN was son of King Clotaire, and grandson of 
Clovis I. and St. Clotildis. Being the second son, whilst his 
brothers Charibert reigned at Paris, and Sigebert in Aus- 
trasia, residing at Metz, he was crowned king of Orleans and 
Burgundy in 561, making Chalons his capital. When compelled 
to take up arms against his ambitious brothers and the Lombards, 
he made no other use of his victories, under the conduct of a 




brave general called Mommol, than to give peace to his dominions. 
The crimes in which the barbarous manners of his nation involved 
him he effaced by tears of repentance. The prosperity of his 



i6o 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 29. 



reign, both in peace and war, condemns those who think that 
human policy cannot be modelled by the maxims of the Gospel, 
whereas nothing- can render a government more flourishing. He 
always treated the pastors of the Church with respect and venera- 
tion. He was the protector of the oppressed, and the tender parent 
of his subjects. He gave the greatest attention to the care of the sick. 
He fasted, prayed, wept, and offered himself to God night and day 
as a victim ready to be sacrificed on the altar of His justice, to avert 
His indignation which he believed he himself had provoked and 
drawn down upon his innocent people. He was a severe punisher 
of crimes in his officers and others, and, by many wholesome regu- 
lations, restrained the barbarous licentiousness of his troops; but 
no man was more ready to forgive offences against his own 
person. With royal magnificence he built and endowed many 
churches and monasteries. This good king died on the 28th of 
March, in 593, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, having reigned 
thirty-one years and some months. 

Reflection. — There is no means of salvation more reliable 
than the practice of mercy, since our Lord has said it : " Blessed 
are the merciful, for they shall find mercy." 

[ 

MARCH 29.— SS. JONAS, BARACHISIUS, AND THEIR 
COMPANIONS, MARTYRS. 

ING SAPOR, of Persia, in the eighteenth year of his reign, 
raised a bloody persecution against the Christians, and laid 
waste their churches and monasteries. Jonas and Bara- 
chisius, two brothers of the city Beth-Asa, hearing that several 
Christians lay under sentence of death at Hubaham, went thither 
to encourage and serve them. Nine of that number received the 
crown of martyrdom. After their execution, Jonas and Barachi- 
sius were apprehended for having exhorted them to die. The 
president entreated the two brothers to obey the King of Persia, 
and to worship the sun, moon, fire, and water. Their answer was, 
that it was more reasonable to obey the immortal King of heaven 
and earth than a mortal prince. Jonas was beaten with knotty 
clubs and with rods, and next set in a frozen pond, with a cord 
tied to his foot. Barachisius had two red-hot iron plates and two 
red-hot hammers applied under each arm, and melted lead dropped 
into his nostrils and eyes ; after which, he was carried to prison, 
and there hung up by one foot. Despite these cruel tortures, the 




March 30.J LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 161 




two brothers remained steadfast in the faith. New and more hor- 
rible torments were then devised, under which, at last, they yielded 
up their lives, while their pure souls winged their flight to heaven, 
there to gain the martyr's crown which they had so faithfully won. 

Reflection. — Those powerful motives which supported the 
martyrs under the sharpest torments ought to inspire us with 
patience, resignation, and holy joy under sickness and all crosses 
or trials. Nothing is more heroic in the practice of Christian 
virtue, nothing more precious in the sight of God, than the sacri- 
fice of patience, submission, constant fidelity, and charity in a 
state of suffering. 

V 

MARCH 30.— ST. JOHN CLIMACUS. 

OHN made, while still young, such progress in learning that 
he was called the Scholastic. At the age of sixteen he turned 
from the brilliant future which lay before him, and retired 
to Mt. Sinai, where he put himself under the direction of a holy 
monk. Never was novice more fervent, more unrelaxing in his 
efforts for self-mastery. After four years, he took the vows, and 
an aged abbot foretold that he would some day be one of the 
greatest lights of the Church. Nineteen years later, on the death 
of his director, he withdrew into a deeper solitude, where he stud- 




LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[March 31. 



ied the lives and writings of the Saints, and was raised to an unu- 
sual height of contemplation. The fame of his holiness and prac- 
tical wisdom drew crowds around him for advice and consolation. 
For his greater profit he visited the solitudes of Egypt. At the age 
of seventy-five he was chosen abbot of Mt. Sinai, and there " he 
dwelt in the mount of God, and drew from the rich treasure of his 
heart priceless riches of doctrine, which he poured forth with won- 
drous abundance and benediction." He was induced by a brother 
abbot to write the rules by which he had guided his life ; and his 
book, called the Climax, or Ladder of Perfection, has been prized in 
all ages for its wisdom its clearness, and its unction. At the end 




of four years, he would no longer endure the honors and distrac- 
tions of his office, and retired to his solitude, where he died a.d. 
605. 



Reflection. — " Cast not from thee, my brother," says the Imita- 
tion of Christ, " the sure hope of attaining to the spiritual life ; still 
hast thou the time and the means." 

MARCH 31.— ST. BENJAMIN, DEACON, MARTYR. 

%FSDEGERDES, son of Sapor III., put a stop to the cruel per- 
M secutions against the Christians in Persia, which had been be- 
gun by Sapor II., and the Church had enjoyed twelve years' 
peace in that kingdom, when, in 420, it was disturbed by the indis- 



March 31.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



creet zeal of Abdas, a Christian bishop who burned down the Pyr- 
aeum, or Temple of Fire, the great divinity of the Persians. King 
Isdergerdes thereupon demolished all the Christian churches in 
Persia, put to death Abdas, and raised a general persecution 
against the Church, which continued forty years with great fury. 
Isdegerdes died the year following, in 421. But his son and suc- 
cessor, Varanes, carried on the persecution with greater inhuman- 
ity. The very recital of the cruelties he exercised on the Chris- 
tians strikes us with horror. Amongst the glorious champions of 
Christ, was St. Benjamin, a deacon. The tyrant caused him to be 




beaten and imprisoned. He had lain a year in the dungeon, when 
an ambassador from the emperor obtained his release on condition 
he should never speak to any of the courtiers about religion. The 
ambassador passed his word in his behalf that he would not ; but 
Benjamin, who was a minister of the Gospel, declared that he 
should miss no opportunity of announcing Christ. The king, being 
informed that he still preached the faith in his kingdom, ordered him 
to be apprehended, caused reeds to be run in between the nails and 
the flesh, both of his hands and feet, and to be thrust into other 
most tender parts, and drawn out again, and this to be frequently 
repeated with violence. Lastly, a knotty stake was thrust into his 
bowels, to rend and tear them, in which torment he expired in the 
year 424. 



164 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April I. 



Reflection. — We entreat you, O most holy martyrs, who cheer- 
fully suffered most cruel torments for God our Saviour and His 
love, on which account you are now most intimately and familiar- 
ly united to Him, that you pray to the Lord for us miserable sin- 
ners, covered with filth, that He infuse into us the grace of Christ, 
that it may enlighten our souls that we may love Him. 

APRIL 1.— ST. HUGH, BISHOP. 

J IT was the happiness of this Saint to receive from his cradle the 
[ strongest impressions of piety by the example and care of his 
illustrious and holy parents. He was born at Chateau-neuf, in 
v the territory of Valence in Dauphine, in 1053. His father, Odilo, 
who served his country in an honorable post in the army, labored, 
by all the means in his power, to make his soldiers faithful 
servants of their Creator, and by severe punishments to restrain 
vice. By the advice of his son, St. Hugh, he afterwards became a 
Carthusian monk, and died at the age of a hundred, having re- 
ceived extreme unction and the viaticum from the hands of his 




son. Our Saint likewise assisted, in her last moments, his mother, 
who had for many years, under his direction, served God in her 
own house, by prayer, fasting, and plenteous alms-deeds. Hugh, 
from the cradle, appeared to be a child of benediction. He went 



April 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



165 



through his studies with great applause, and having chosen to serve 
God in an ecclesiastical state, he accepted a canonry in the cathe- 
dral of Valence. His great sanctity and learning rendered him 
an ornament of that Church, and he was finally made bishop of 
Grenoble. He set himself at once to reprove vice and to reform 
abuses, and so plentiful was the benediction of heaven upon his 
labors that he had the comfort to see the face of his diocese in a 
short time exceedingly changed. After two years, he privately re- 
signed his bishopric, presuming on the tacit consent of the Holy 
See, and, putting on the habit of St. Bennet, he entered upon a no- 
vitiate in the austere abbey of Casa-Dei, in Auvergne. There he 
lived a year a perfect model of all virtues to that house of Saints, 
till Pope Gregory VII. commanded him in virtue of holy obe- 
dience to resume his pastoral charge. 

He earnestly solicited Pope Innocent II. for leave to resign his 
bishopric, that he might die in solitude ; but was never able to ob- 
tain his request. God was pleased to purify his soul by a linger- 
ing illness before He called him to Himself. Some time before his 
death, he lost his memory for every thing but his prayers. He 
closed his penitential course on the 1st of April, in 1132, wanting 
only two months of being eighty years old, of which he had been 
fifty-two years bishop. Miracles attested the sanctity of his happy 
death, and he was canonized by Innocent II. in 1134. 

Reflection. — Let us learn from the example of the Saints, to 
shun the tumult of the world as much as our circumstances will 
allow, and give ourselves up to the exercises of holy sjlitude, 
prayer, and pious reading. 

APRIL 2.— ST. FRANCIS OF PAULA. 

T the age of fifteen, Francis left his poor home at Paula in 
Calabria to live as a hermit in a cave by the sea-coast. In 
time disciples gathered round him, and with them, in 1436, 
he founded the " Minims," so called to show that they were the least 
of monastic Orders. They observed a perpetual Lent, and never 
touched meat, fish, eggs, or milk. Francis himself made the rock 
his bed ; his best garment was a hair shirt, and boiled herbs his 
only fare. As his body withered, his faith grew powerful, and he 
" did all things in Him who strengthened him." He cured the 
sick, raised the dead, averted plagues, expelled evil spirits, and 
brought sinners to penance. A famous preacher, instigated by a 




LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 2. 



few misguided monks, set to work to preach against St. Francis 
and his miracles. The Saint took no notice of it, and the 
preacher, finding that he made no way with his hearers, deter- 
mined to see this poor hermit, and confound him in person. 
The Saint received him kindly, gave him a seat by the fire, and 
listened to a long exposition of his own frauds. He then qui- 
etly took some glowing embers from the fire, and closing his 
hands upon them unhurt, said, " Come, Father Anthony, warm 
yourself, for you are shivering for want of a little charity." 
Father Anthony, falling at the Saint's feet, asked for pardon, 




and then, having received his embrace, quitted him, to become 
his panegyrist and attain himself to great perfection. When 
the avaricious King Ferdinand of Naples offered him money for 
his convent, Francis told him to give it back to his oppressed 
subjects, and softened his heart by causing blood to flow from 
the ill-gotten coin. Louis XI. of France, trembling at the ap- 
proach of death, sent for the poor hermit to ward off the foe 
whose advance neither his fortresses nor his guards could 
check. Francis went by the Pope's command, and prepared the 
king for a holy death. The successors of Louis showered fa- 
vors on the Saint, his Order spread throughout Europe, and 
his name was reverenced through the Christian world. He 
died at the age of ninety-one, on Good Friday, 1507, with the 



April 3.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



167 



crucifix in his nand, and the last words of Jesus on his lips, 
" Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit." 

Reflection. — Rely in all difficulties upon God. That which 
enabled St. Francis to work miracles will in proportion do 
wonders for yourself, by giving you strength and consolation. 

APRIL 3.— ST. RICHARD OF CHICHESTER. 

ICHARD was born a.d. 1197, in the little town of Wyche, 
eight miles from Worcester, England. He and his elder 
brother were left orphans when young, and Richard gave up 
the studies which he loved, to farm his brother's impoverished 
estate. His brother, in gratitude for Richard's successful care, 
proposed to make over to him all his lands ; but he refused both 




the estates and the offer of a brilliant marriage, to study for the 
priesthood at Oxford. In 1135 he was appointed, for his learning 
and piety, chancellor of that University, and afterward by St. 
Edmund of Canterbury, chancellor of his diocese. He stood by 
that Saint in his long contest with the King, and accompanied him 
into exile. After St. Edmund's death, Richard returned to Eng- 
land to toil as a simple curate, but was soon elected Bishop of 
Chichester in preference to the worthless nominee of Henry III. 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 4. 



The King in revenge refused to recognize the election, and seized 
the revenues of the see. Thus Richard found himself fighting the 
same battle in which St. Edmund had died. He went to Lyons, was 
there consecrated by Innocent IV. in 1245, and returning to Eng- 
land, in spite of his poverty and the King's hostility, exercised 
fully his episcopal rights, and thoroughly reformed his see. After 
two years, his revenues were restored. Young and old loved St. 
Richard. He gave all he had, and worked miracles, to feed the 
poor and heal the sick ; but when the rights or purity of the 
Church were concerned, he was inexorable. A priest of noble 
blood polluted his office by sin ; Richard deprived him of his bene- 
fice, and refused the King's petition in his favor. On the other 
hand, when a knight violently put a priest in prison, Richard 
compelled the knight to walk round the priest's church with the 
same log of wood on his neck to which he had chained the priest ; 
and when the burgesses of Lewes tore a criminal from the church 
and hanged him, Richard made them dig up the body from its un- 
consecrated grave, and bear it back to the sanctuary they had 
violated. Richard died a.d. 1253, while preaching, at the Pope's 
command, a crusade against the Saracens. 

Reflection.— As a brother, as chancellor, and as bishop, St. 
Richard faithfully performed each duty of his state without a 
thought of his own interests. Neglect of duty is the first sign of 
that self-love which ends with the loss of grace. 



APRIL 4.— ST. ISIDORE, ARCHBISHOP. 

tSIDORE was born of a ducal family, at Carthagena in Spain. 
His two brothers, Leander, Archbishop of Seville, Fulgentius 
Bishop of Ecija, and his sister Florentina, are Saints. As a 
boy he despaired at his ill success in study, and ran away from 
school. Resting in his flight at a roadside spring, he observed a 
stone, which was hollowed out by the dripping water. This de- 
cided him to return, and by hard application he succeeded where he 
had failed. He went back to his master, and with the help of God 
became, even as a youth, one of the most learned men of the time. 
He assisted in converting Prince Recared, the leader of the Arian 
party ; and with his aid, though at the constant peril of his own 
life, he expelled that heresy from Spain. Then, following a call 
from God, he turned a deaf ear to the entreaties of his friends, 
and embraced a hermit's life. Prince Recared and many of the 



April 5.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



169 



nobles and clergy of Seville went to persuade him to come forth, 
and represented the needs of the times, and the good he could do, 
and had already done, among the people. He refused, and as far 
as we can judge, that refusal gave him the necessary opportunity 
of acquiring the virtue and the power which afterwards made him 
an illustrious Bishop and Doctor of the Church. On the death of 
his brother Leander, he was called to fill the vacant see. As a 
teacher, ruler, founder, and reformer, he labored not only in his 
own diocese, but throughout Spain, and even in foreign countries. 




He died in Seville on April 4th, 636, and within sixteen years of 
his death was declared a Doctor of the Catholic Church. 



Reflection. — The strength of temptation usually lies in the 
fact that its object is something flattering to our pride, soothing 
to our sloth, or in some way attractive to the meaner passions. St. 
Isidore teaches us to listen neither to the promptings of nature nor 
the plausible advice of friends when they contradict the voice of 
God. 

APRIL 5.— ST. VINCENT FERRER. 

HIS wonderful apostle, the " Angel of the Judgment," was 
born at Valencia in Spain, in 1350, and at the age of eighteen 
professed in the Order of St. Dominic. After a brilliant 
course of study, he became master of sacred theology. For three 




LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 5. 




years he read only the Scriptures, and knew the whole Bible by 
heart. He converted the Jews of Valencia, and their synagogue 
became a church. Grief at the great schism then affecting the 
Church reduced him to the point of death ; but our Lord Himself 
in glory bade him go forth to convert sinners, "for My judgment 
is nigh." This miraculous apostolate lasted twenty-one years. 
He preached throughout Europe, in the towns and villages of 
Spain, Switzerland, France, Italy, England, Ireland, Scotland. 
Everywhere tens of thousands of sinners were reformed ; Jews, 
infidels, and heretics were converted. Stupendous miracles enforced 
his words. Twice each day the " miracle bell " summoned the sick, 
the blind, the lame to be cured. Sinners the most obdurate be- 
came Saints ; speaking only his native Spanish, he was understood in 
all tongues. Processions of ten thousand penitents followed him 
in perfect order. Convents, orphanages, hospitals arose in his 
path. Amidst all, his humility remained profound, his prayer 
constant. He always prepared for preaching by prayer. Once, 
however, when a person of high rank was to be present at his ser- 
mon, he neglected prayer for study. The nobleman was not par- 
ticularly struck by the discourse which had been thus carefully 
worked up ; but coming again to hear the Saint, unknown to the 
latter, the second sermon made a deep impression on his soul. 
When St. Vincent heard of the difference, he remarked that in the 



April 6.] 



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171 



first sermon it was Vincent who had preached, but in the second, 
Jesus Christ. He fell ill at Vannes in Brittany, and received the 
crown of everlasting glory in 1419. 

Reflection. — "Whatever you do," said St. Vincent, "think 
not of yourself, but of God." In this spirit he preached, and God 
spoke by him ; in this spirit, if we listen, we shall hear the voice 
of God. 

Lx ^APRIL 6.— ST. CELESTINE, POPE. 

fT. CELESTINE was a native of Rome, and upon the demise 
of Pope Boniface, he was chosen to succeed him, in Sep- 
tember, 422, by the wonderful consent of the whole city. 
His first official act was to confirm the condemnation of an 
African Bishop, who had been convicted of grave crimes. He 
wroce also to the Bishops of the provinces of Vienne and Nar- 
bonne in Gaul, to correct several abuses, and ordered, among 
other things, that absolution or reconciliation should never be 
refused to any dying sinner, who sincerely asked it ; for repent- 
ance depends not so much on time as on the heart. He assem- 




bled a synod at Rome, in 430, in which the writings of Nestorius 
were examined, and his blasphemies in maintaining in Christ a 
divine and a human person were condemned. The Pope pro- 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 7. 



nounced sentence of excommunication against Nestorius, and de- 
posed him. Being informed that Agricola, the son of a British 
Bishop called Severianus, who had been married before he was 
raised to the priesthood, had spread the seeds of the Pelagian heresy 
in Britain, St. Celestine sent thither St. Germanus of Auxerre, 
whose zeal and conduct happily prevented the threatening dan- 
ger. He also sent St. Palladius, a Roman, to preach the faith 
to the Scots, both in North Britain and in Ireland, and many 
authors of the life of St. Patrick say that Apostle likewise re- 
ceived his commission to preach to the Irish from St. Celestine, 
in 431. This holy Pope died on the 1st of August, in 432, hav- 
ing reigned almost ten years. 

Reflection. — Vigilance is truly needful to those to whom the 
care of souls has been confided. " Blessed are the servants whom 
the Lord at His coming shall find watching." 

APRIL 7.— ST. HEGESIPPUS, A PRIMITIVE FATHER. 

j [d T E was by birth a Jew, and belonged to the Church of Jeru- 
2FjL salem, but travelling to Rome, he lived there nearly twenty 
years, from the Pontificate of Anicetus to that of Eleu- 




therius, in 177, when he returned into the East, where he died at 
an advanced age, probably at Jerusalem, in the year of Christ 180, 



April 7.] 



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173 



according to the chronicle of Alexandria. He wrote in the year 
133 a History of the Church in five books, from the Passion of 
Christ down to his own time, the loss of which work is extremely 
regretted. In it he gave illustrious proofs of his faith, and 
showed the Apostolical tradition, and that though certain men 
had disturbed the Church by broaching heresies, yet down to his 
time, no episcopal see or particular Church had fallen into error. 
This testimony he gave after having personally visited all the 
principal Churches, both of the East and West. 



BLESSED HERMAN JOSEPH OF STEINFELD, 

ERMAN from his earliest years was a devoted client of the 
Mother of God. As a little child he used to spend all his 
play-time in the church at Cologne before an image of 
Mary, where he received many favors. One bitter winter day, as 
little Herman was coming barefooted into church, his heavenly 
Mother appearing to him, asked him lovingly why his feet were 
bare in such cold weather " Alas ! dear Lady," he said, " it is be- 
cause my parents are so poor." She pointed to a stone, telling him 
to look beneath it ; there he found four silver pieces wherewith to 
buy shoes ; he did not forget to return and thank her. She enjoined 
him to go to the same spot in all his wants, and disappeared. 
Never did the supply fail him; but his comrades, moved by a 
different spirit, could find nothing. Once our Lady stretched out 
her hand, and took an apple which the boy offered her in pledge 
of his love. Another time he saw her high up in the tribune, 
with the Holy Child and St. John ; he longed to join them, but 
saw no way of doing so ; suddenly he found himself placed by 
their side, and holding sweet converse with the Infant Jesus. At 
the age of twelve he entered the Premonstratensian house at 
Steinfeld, and there led an angelic life of purity and prayer. His 
fellow-novices, seeing what graces he received from Mary, called 
him Joseph ; and "when he shrank from so high an honor, our 
Lady in a vision took him as her spouse, and bade him bear the 
name. Jealously she reproved the smallest faults in her be- 
trothed, and once appeared to him as an old woman to upbraid 
him for some slight want of devotion. As her dowry, she con- 
ferred on him the most cruel sufferings of mind and body, which 
were especially severe on the great feasts of the Church. But 
with the cross Mary brought him the grace to bear it bravely, 




l 7A 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 8. 



and thus his heart was weaned from earthly things, and he was 
made ready for his early and saintly death, which took place about 
the year 1230. 

Reflection. — Do not approach our Blessed Mother with set 
prayers only. Be intimate with her; confide in her; commend 
to her every want and every project, small as well as great. It is 
a childlike reliance and a trustful appeal which she delights to 
reward. 

. APRIL 8.— ST. PERPETUUS, BISHOP. 

T. PERPETUUS was the eighth bishop of Tours from St. 
Gatian, and governed that see above thirty years, from 461 
to 491, when he died on the 8th of April. During all that 
time he labored by zealous sermons, many synods, and wholesome 
regulations, to lead souls to virtue. St. Perpetuus had a great 




veneration for the Saints, and respect for their relics; adorned 
their shrines, and enriched their churches. As there was a con- 
tinual succession of miracles at the tomb of St. Martin, Per- 
petuus finding the church built by St. Bricius too small for the 
concourse of people that resorted thither, directed its enlargement. 
When the building was finished, the good bishop solemnized the 
dedication of this new church, and performed the translation of 
the body of St. Martin, on the 4th of July, in 473. Our Saint 




April 9.] 



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175 



made and signed his last will, which is still extant, on the 1st 
of March, 475, fifteen years before his death. By it he remits 
all debts that were owing to him ; and having bequeathed to his 
church his library and several farms, and settled a fund for the 
maintenance of lamps, and the purchase of sacred vessels, as occa- 
sion might require, he declares the poor his heirs. He adds most 
pathetic exhortations to concord and piety; and bequeaths to his 
sister, Fidia Julia Perpetua, a little gold cross, with relics; he 
leaves legacies to several other friends and priests, begging of 
each a remembrance of him in their prayers. His ancient epi- 
taph equals him to the great St. Martin. 

Reflection. — The smart of poverty, says a spiritual writer, is 
allayed even more by one word of true sympathy than by the alms 
we give. Alms coldly and harshly given irritate rather than soothe. 
Even when we cannot give, words of kindness are as a precious 
balm ; and when we can give, they are the salt and seasoning of 
our alms. 



T the tender age of twelve, Mary left her father's house that 



she might sin without restraint, and for seventeen years she 



lived in shame at Alexandria. Then she accompanied a 
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and entangled many in grievous sin. 
She was in that city on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy 
Cross, and went with the crowd to the church which contained the 
precious wood. The rest entered and adored; but Mary was in- 
visibly held back. In that instant her misery and pollution burst 
upon her. Turning to the Immaculate Mother, whose picture 
faced her in the porch, she vowed thenceforth to do penance if 
she might enter and stand like Magdalen beside the Cross. Then 
she entered in. As she knelt before our Lady on leaving the 
church, a voice came to her which said, " Pass over Jordan, and 
thou shalt find rest." She went into the wilderness, and there, in 
420, forty-seven years after, the Abbot Zosimus met her. She told 
him that for seventeen years the old songs and scenes had haunted 
her ; ever since, she had had perfect peace. At her request he 
brought her on Holy Thursday the sacred Body of Christ. She 
bade him return again after a year, and this time he found her 
corpse upon the sand, with an inscription saying, " Bury here the 
body of Mary the sinner." 



APRIL 9.-ST. MARY OF EGYPT. 




176 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 9. 



Reflection. — Blessed John Colombini was converted to God 
by reading St. Mary's life. Let us, too, learn from her not to be 
content with confessing and lamenting our sins, but to fly from 
what leads us to commit them. 

ST. JOHN THE ALMONER. 

T. JOHN was married, but when his wife and two children 
died, he considered it a call from God to lead a perfect life. 
He began to give away all he possessed in alms, and became 
known throughout the East as the Almoner. He was appointed 




Patriarch of Alexandria ; but before he would take possession of 
his see, he told his servants to go over the town and bring him a 
list of his lords — meaning the poor. They brought word there 
were seventy-five hundred of them, and these he undertook to 
feed every day. On Wednesday and Friday in every week he sat 
on a bench before the church, to hear the complaints of the needy 
and aggrieved ; nor would he permit his servants to taste food 
until their wrongs were redressed. The fear of death was ever 
before him, and he never spoke an idle word. He turned those 
out of church whom he saw talking, and forbade all detractors to 
enter his house. He left seventy churches in Alexandria, where 




April io.] 



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177 



he had found but seven. A merchant received from St. John five 
pounds weight of gold to buy merchandise. Having suffered 
shipwreck, and lost all, he had again recourse to John, who said r 
" Some of your merchandise was ill-gotten," and gave him ten 
pounds more ; but the next voyage he lost ship as well as goods.. 
John then said, " The ship was wrongfully acquired. Take fifteen 
pounds of gold, buy corn with it, and put it on one of my ships." 
This time the merchant was carried by the winds without his own. 
knowledge to England, where there was a famine ; and he sold 
the corn for its weight in tin, and on his return he found the 
tin changed to finest silver. St. John died in Cyprus, his native 
place, about the year 619. 

Reflection. — What sacrifices can we make for the poor which 
will seem enough, when we reflect that mercy to them is our only 
means of repaying Jesus Christ, who sacrificed His life for us ? 



APRIL 10.— ST. BADEMUS, MARTYR. 

ADEMUS was a rich and noble citizen of Bethlapeta, in Per- 
dp) sia, who founded a monastery near that city, which he gov- 
erned with great sanctity. He conducted his religious in the 
paths of perfection with sweetness, prudence, and charity. To 
crown his virtue, God permitted him, with seven of his monks, to 
be apprehended by the followers of King Sapor, in the thirty- 
sixth year of his persecution. He lay four months in a dungeon, 
loaded with chains ; during which lingering martyrdom he every 
day received a number of stripes. But he triumphed over his 
torments by the patience and joy with which he suffered them for 
Christ. At the same time, a Christian lord named Nersan, prince 
of Aria, was cast into prison because he refused to adore the sun. 
At first he showed some resolution ; but at the sight of tortures 
his constancy failed him, and he promised to conform. The king, 
to try if his change was sincere, ordered Bademus to be introduced 
into the prison of Nersan, which was a chamber in the royal palace, 
and sent word to Nersan that if he would dispatch Bademus, he 
should be restored to his liberty and former dignities. The wretch 
accepted the condition ; a sword was put into his hand, and he ad- 
vanced to plunge it into the breast of the abbot. But being seized 
with a sudden terror, he stopped short, and remained some time 
without being able to lift up his arm to strike. He had neither 
courage to repent, nor heart to accomplish his crime. He strove, 



178 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April io. 



however, to harden himself, and continued with a trembling hand 
to aim at the sides of the martyr. Fear, shame, remose, and re- 
spect for the martyr made his strokes forceless and unsteady ; and 
so great was the number of the martyr's wounds, that the bystand- 
ers were in admiration at his invincible patience. After four strokes, 
the martyr's head was severed from the trunk. Nersan, a short 
time after, falling into public disgrace, perished by the sword. 
The body of St. Bademus was reproachfully cast out of the city by 
the infidels ; but was secretly carried away and interred by the 
Christians. His disciples were released from their chains four 




years afterward upon the death of King Sapor. St. Bademus suf- 
fered on the ioth of April in the year 376. 

Reflection. — Oh ! what ravishing delights does the soul taste 
which is accustomed, by a familiar habit, to converse in the heaven 
-of its own interior with the Three Persons of the adorable Trinity ! 
Worldlings wonder how holy solitaries can pass their whole time 
buried in the most profound solitude and silence. But those who 
have had any experience of this happiness, are surprised with far 
greater reason how it is possible that any souls which are created 
to converse eternally with God, should here live in constant dissi- 
pation, seldom entertaining a devout thought of Him whose charms 
and sweet conversation eternally ravish all the blessed. 



April II.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



179 



APRIL 11.— ST. LEO THE GREAT 



EO was born at Rome. He embraced the sacred ministry, 
ras made archdeacon of the Roman Church by St. Celes- 
tine, and under him and Sixtus III. had a large share in 
governing the Church. On the death of Sixtus, Leo was chosen 
Pope, and consecrated on St. Michael's day, 440, amid great joy. 
It was a time of terrible trial. Vandals and Huns were wasting 
the provinces of the empire, and Nestorians, Pelagians, and other 
heretics wrought more grievous havoc among souls. Whilst Leo's 
zeal made head against these perils, there arose the new heresy of 




Eutyches, who confounded the two natures of Christ. At once 
the vigilant pastor proclaimed the true doctrine of the Incarnation 
in his famous "tome;" but fostered by the Byzantine court, the 
heresy gained a strong hold amongst the Eastern monks and 
bishops. After three years of unceasing toil, Leo brought about 
its solemn condemnation by the Council of Chalcedon, the Fathers 
all signing his tome, and exclaiming, " Peter hath spoken by Leo." 
Soon after, Attila with his Huns broke into Italy, and marched 
through its burning cities upon Rome. Leo went out boldly to 
meet him, and prevailed on him to turn back. Astonished to see 
the terrible Attila, the "Scourge of God," fresh from the sack of 
Aquileia, Milan, Pavia, with the rich prize of Rome within his. 
grasp, turn his great host back to the Danube at the Saint's word,. 



i8o 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 12. 



his chiefs asked him why he had acted so strangely. He answered 
that he saw two venerable personages, supposed to be SS. Peter 
and Paul, standing behind Leo, and impressed by this vision he 
withdrew. If the perils of the Church are as great now as in St. 
Leo's day, St. Peter's solicitude is not less. Two years later the 
city fell a prey to the Vandals ; but even then Leo saved it from 
destruction. He died a.d. 461, having ruled the Church twenty 
years. 

Reflection. — Leo loved to ascribe all the fruits of his unspar- 
ing labors to the glorious chief of the Apostles, who, he often de- 
clared, lives and governs in his successors. 

^ APRIL 12.— ST. JULIUS, POPE. 

fT. JULIUS was a Roman, and chosen Pope on the 6th of 
February in 337. The Arian bishops in the East sent to him 
three deputies to accuse St. Athanasius, the zealous patri- 
arch of Alexandria. These accusations, as the order of justice 
required, Julius imparted to Athanasius, who thereupon sent his 
deputies to Rome; when, upon an impartial hearing, the advocates 




of the heretics were confounded and silenced upon every article 
of their accusation. The Arians then demanded a council, and 
the Pope assembled one in Rome in 341. The Arians instead of 



April 13.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



I8l 



appearing held a pretended council at Antioch in 341, in which 
they presumed to appoint one Gregory, an impious Arian, bishop 
of Alexandria, detained the Pope's legates beyond the time men- 
tioned for their appearance ; and then wrote to his holiness, al- 
leging a pretended impossibility of their appearing, on account of 
the Persian war and other impediments. The Pope easily saw 
through these pretences, and, in a council at Rome, examined the 
cause of St. Athanasius, declared him innocent of the things laid 
to his charge by the Arians, and confirmed him in his see. He 
also acquitted Marcellus of Ancyra, upon his orthodox profes- 
sion of faith. He drew up and sent by Count Gabian, to the Ori- 
ental Eusebian bishops, who had first demanded a council, and 
then refused to appear in it, an excellent letter, which is looked 
upon as one of the finest monuments of ecclesiastical antiquity* 
Finding the Eusebians still obstinate, he moved Constans, emperor 
of the West, to demand the concurrence of his brother Constan- 
tius in the assembling of a general council at Sardica in Illyricum. 
This was opened in May 347, and declared St. Athanasius and Mar- 
cellus of Ancyra orthodox and innocent, deposed certain Arian 
bishops, and framed twenty-one canons of discipline. St. Julius 
reigned fifteen years, two months, and six days, dying on the 12th 
of April, 352. 



APRIL 13.— ST. HERMENEGILD, MARTYR. 

jT/^)EOVIGiLD, King of the Visigoths, had two sons, Hermene- 
J '^-^ gild and Recared, who reigned conjointly with him. All 
three were Arians, but Hermenegild married a zealous 
Catholic, the daughter of Sigebert, King of France, and by her 
holy example was converted to the faith. His father, on hearing 
the news, denounced him as a traitor, and marched to seize his 
person. Hermenegild tried to rally the Catholics of Spain in his 
defence, but they were too weak to make any stand, and, after a 
two years' fruitless struggle, he surrendered on the assurance of a 
free pardon. When safely in the royal camp, the king had him 
loaded with fetters and cast into a foul dungeon at Seville. Tor- 
tures and bribes were in turn employed to shake his faith, but 
Hermenegild wrote to his father that he held the crown as noth- 
ing, and preferred to lose sceptre and life rather than betray the 
truth of God. At length, on Easter night, an Arian bishop entered 
his cell, and promised him his father's pardon if he would but 
receive Communion at his hands. Hermenegild indignantly 



182 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 14. 



rejected the offer, and knelt with joy for his death-stroke. The 
same night a light streaming from his cell told the Christians who 
were watching near that the martyr had won his crown, and was 
keeping his Easter with the Saints in glory. 

Leovigild, on his death-bed, though still an Arian, bade Recared 
seek out St. Leander, whom he had himself cruelly persecuted, 
and, following Hermenegild's example, be received by him into 
the Church. Recared did so, and on his father's death labored so 
earnestly for the extirpation of Arianism that he brought over the 
whole nation of the Visigoths to the Church. " Nor is it to be 




wondered," says St. Gregory, " that he came thus to be a preacher 
of the true faith, seeing that he was brother of a martyr, whose 
merits did help him to bring so many into the lap of God's 
Church." 



Reflection. — St. Hermenegild teaches us that constancy and 
sacrifice are the best arguments for the Faith, and the surest way 
to win souls to God. 

APRIL 14.-ST. BENEZET, OR LITTLE BENNET. 

T. BENEZET kept his mother's sheep in the country, and as 
a mere child was devoted to practices of piety. As many 
persons were drowned in crossing the Rhone, Benezet was 
inspired by God to build a bridge over that rapid river at Avig- 




April 14.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



183 



non. He obtained t'he approbation of the bishop, proved his mis- 
sion by miracles, and began the work in 11 77, which he directed 
during seven years. He died when the difficulty of the under- 
taking was over, in 1184. This is attested by public monuments 
drawn up at that time and still preserved at Avignon, where the 
story is in every body's mouth. His body was buried upon the 
bridge itself, which was not completely finished till four years 
after his decease, the structure whereof was attended with miracles 
from the first laying of the foundations till it was completed in 
1 188. Other miracles wrought after this at his tomb induced the 




city to build a chapel upon the bridge, in which his body lay 
nearly five hundred years. But in 1669, a greater part of the bridge 
falling down through the impetuosity of the waters, the coffin was 
taken up, and being opened in 1670 in presence of the grand vicar, 
during the vacancy of the archiepiscopal see, the body was found 
entire, without the least sign of corruption ; even the bowels were 
perfectly sound, and the color of the eyes lively and sprightly, 
though, through the dampness of the situation, the iron bars about 
the coffin were much damaged with rust. The body was found in 
the same condition by the Archbishop of Avignon in 1674, when, 
accompanied by the Bishop of Orange and a great concourse of 
nobility, he performed the translation of it, with great pomp, into 
the church of the Celestines, this Order having obtained of Louis 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 15. 



XIV. the honor of being intrusted with the custody of his relics, 
till such time as the bridge and chapel should be rebuilt. 

Reflection. — Let us pray for perseverance in good works. 
St. Augustine says, " When the Saints pray in the words which 
Christ taught, they ask for little else than the gift of perseverance." 

APRIL 15.— ST. PATERNUS, BISHOP. 

T. PATERNUS was born at Poitiers, about the year 482. 
His father, Patranus, with the consent of his wife, went into 
Ireland, where he ended his days in holy solitude. Paternus, 
fired by his example, embraced a monastic life in the abbey of 
Marnes. After some time, burning with a desire of attaining to 
the perfection of Christian virtue, he passed over to Wales, and in 




Cardiganshire founded a monastery called Llanpatern-vaur, or the 
church of the great Paternus. He made a visit to his father in 
Ireland ; but being called back to his monastery of Marnes, he 
soon after retired with St. Scubilion, a monk of that house, and 
embraced an austere anchoretical life in the forests of Scicy, in the 
diocese of Coutances, near the sea, having first obtained leave of 
the bishop and of the lord of the place. This desert, which was 
then of great extent, but which has been since gradually gained 



April 16.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



I8 5 



upon by the sea, was anciently in great request among the Druids. 
St. Paternus converted to the faith the idolaters of that and many 
neighboring parts, as far as Bayeux, and prevailed upon them to 
demolish a pagan temple in this desert, which was held in great 
veneration by the ancient Gauls. In his old age he was conse- 
crated bishop of Avranches by Germanus, Bishop of Rouen. 

Some false brethren having created a division of opinion among 
the bishops of the province with respect to St. Paternus, he pre- 
ferred retiring rather than to afford any ground for dissension, 
and, after governing his diocese for thirteen years, he withdrew to 
a solitude in France, and there ended his days about the year 550. 

Reflection. — The greatest sacrifices imposed by the love of 
peace will appear as naught if we call to mind the example of 
our Saviour, and remember his words, " Blessed are the peace- 
makers, for they shall be called the children of God." 




APRIL 16.— EIGHTEEN MARTYRS OF SARAGOSSA, AND ST. 
ENCRATIS, OR ENGRATIA, VIRGIN, MARTYR. 

T. OPTATUS and seventeen other holy men received the 
crown of martyrdom on the same day, at Saragossa, under 
the cruel Governor Dacian, in the persecution of Diocletian, 
in 304. Two others, Caius and Crementius, died of their tor- 
ments after a second conflict. 

The Church also celebrates on this day the triumph of St. En- 
cratis, or Engratia, Virgin. She was a native of Portugal. Her 
father had promised her in marriage to a man of quality in Rou- 
sillon ; but, fearing the dangers, and despising the vanities of the 
world, and resolving to preserve her virginity, in order to appear 
more agreeable to her heavenly spouse, and serve Him without 
hinderance, she stole from her father's house and fled privately to 
Saragossa, where the persecution was hottest, under the eyes of 
Dacian. She even reproached him with his barbarities, upon 
which he ordered her to be long tormented in the most inhuman 
manner: her sides were torn with iron hooks, and one of her 
breasts was cut off, so that the inner parts of her chest were ex- 
posed to view, and part of her liver was pulled out. In this condi- 
tion she was sent back to prison, being still alive, and died by the 
mortifying of her wounds, in 304. The relics of all these martyrs 
were found at Saragossa in 1389. 




1 86 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [April 17. 




Reflection. — Men do not pursue temporal goods at hap- 
hazard, or by fits and starts. Let us be as punctual and orderly in 
the service of God, not casting about for new paths, but perfect- 
ing our ordinary devotions. If we persevere in these, Paradise is 
ours. 



APRIL 17.— ST. ANICETUS, POPE, MARTYR. 

T. ANICETUS succeeded St. Pius, and sat about eight 
years, from 165 to 173. If he did not shed his blood for the 
faith, he at least purchased the title of martyr by great suf- 
ferings and dangers. He received a visit from St. Polycarp, and 
tolerated the custom of the Asiatics in celebrating Easter on the 
14th day of the first moon after the vernal equinox, with the Jews. 
His vigilance protected his flock from the wiles of the heretics, 
Valentine and Marcion, who sought to corrupt the faith in the 
capital of the world. 

The thirty-six first bishops at Rome, down to Liberius, and, this 
one excepted, all the popes to Symmachus, the fifty-second, in 
498, are honored among the Saints ; and out of two hundred and 
forty-eight popes, from St. Peter to Clement XIII. seventy-eight 
are named in the Roman Martyrology. In the primitive ages, the 
spirit of fervor and perfect sanctity, which is nowadays so rarely 
to be found, was conspicuous in most of the faithful, and especi- 




April 1 8.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



I8 7 




ally in their pastors. The whole tenor of their lives breathed it 
in such a manner as to render them the miracles of the world, 
angels on earth, living copies of their divine Redeemer, the odor 
of whose virtues and holy law and religion they spread on every 
side. 



Reflection. — If, after making the mos^ solemn protestations 
of inviolable friendship and affection for a fellow-creature, we 
should the next moment revile and contemn him, without having 
received any provocation or affront, and this habitually, would not 
the whole world justly call our protestations hypocrisy, and our 
pretended friendship a mockery ? Let us by this rule judge if our 
love of God be sovereign, so long as our inconstancy betrays 
the insincerity of our hearts. 



APRIL 18.— ST. APOLLONIUS, MARTYR. 

ARCUS AURELIUS had persecuted the Christians, but his 
son, Commodus, who, in 180, succeeded him, showed him- 
self favorable to them out of regard to his Empress Marcia, 
who was an admirer of the faith. During this calm, the number 
of the faithful was exceedingly increased, and many persons of the 
first rank, among them Apollonius, a Roman senator, enlisted 
themselves under the banner of the cross. He was a person very 



1 88 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 1 8. 



well versed both in philosophy and the holy Scripture. In the 
midst of the peace which the Church enjoyed, he was publicly 
accused of Christianity by one of his own slaves. The slave was 
immediately condemned to have his legs broken, and to be put to 
death, in consequence of an edict of Marcus Aurelius, who, with- 
out repealing the former laws against convicted Christians, 
ordered by it that their accusers should be put to death. The 
slave being executed, the same judge sent an order to St. Apol- 
lonius to renounce his religion as he valued his life and for- 
tune. The Saint courageously rejected such ignominious terms 




of safety, wherefore Perennis referred him to the judgment of the 
Roman senate, to give an account of his faith to that body. Per- 
sisting in his refusal to comply with the condition, the Saint 
was condemned by a decree of the Senate, and beheaded about 
the year 186. 

Reflection. — It is the prerogative of the Christian religion to 
inspire men with such resolution, and form them to such heroism, 
that they rejoice to sacrifice their life to truth. This is not the 
bare force and exertion of nature, but the undoubted power of the 
Almighty, whose strength is thus made perfect in weakness. 
Every Christian ought, by his manners, to bear witness to the 
sanctity of his faith. Such would be the force of universal good 
example, that no libertine or infidel could withstand it. 



April 19.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



APRIL 19.— ST. ELPHEGE, ARCHBISHOP. 

fT. ELPHEGE was born in the year 954 of a noble Saxon 
family. He first became a monk in the monastery of Deer- 
hurst, near Tewkesbury, England, and afterwards lived as a 
hermit near Bath, where he founded a community under the rule 
of St. Benedict, and became its first abbot. At thirty years of age 
he was chosen Bishop of Winchester, and twenty-two years later 
he became Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1011, when the Danes 
landed in Kent, and took the city of Canterbury, putting all to fire 
and sword, St. Elphege was captured and carried off in the ex- 




pectation of a large ransom. He was unwilling that his ruined 
church and people should be put to such expense, and was kept in 
a loathsome prison at Greenwich for seven months. While so con- 
fined, some friends came and urged him to lay a tax upon his ten- 
ants to raise the sum demanded for his ransom. " What reward 
can I hope for," said he, " if I spend upon myself what belongs to 
the poor ? Better give up to the poor what is ours, than take from 
them the little which is their own." As he still refused to give 
ransom, the enraged Danes fell upon him in a fury, beat him 
with the blunt sides of their weapons, and bruised him with stones 
until one, whom the Saint had baptized shortly before, put an end 
to his sufferings by the blow of an axe. He died on Easter Satur- 



190 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 20. 



day, April 19th, 10 12, his last words being a prayer for his murder- 
ers. His body was first buried in St. Paul's, London, but was af- 
terwards translated to Canterbury by King Canute. A church de- 
dicated to St. Elphege still stands upon the place of his martyrdom 
at Greenwich. 

Reflection. — Those who are in high positions should consider 
themselves as stewards rather than masters of the wealth or power 
intrusted to them for the benefit of the poor and weak. St. Elphege 
died rather than extort his ransom from the poor tenants of the 
Church lands. 



APRIL 20.— ST. MARCELLINUS, BISHOP. 

fT. MARCELLINUS was born in Africa, of a noble family; 
accompanied by Vincent and Domninus, he went over into 
Gaul, and there preached the Gospel, with great success, in 
the neighborhood of the Alps. He afterwards settled at Embrun 
where he built a chapel in which he passed his nights in prayer, 
after laboring all the day in the exerci-se of his sacred calling. By 




his pious example as well as by his earnest words, he converted 
many of the heathens among whom he lived. He was afterwards 
made bishop of the people whom he had won over to Christ, but 



April 21.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



I 9 I 



the date of his consecration is not positively known. Burning 
with zeal for the glory of God, he sent Vincent and Domninus to 
preach the faith in those parts which he could not visit in person. 
He died at Embrun about the year 374, and was there interred'. 
St. Gregory of Tours, who speaks of Marcellinus in terms of high- 
est praise, mentions many miracles as happening at his tomb. 

Reflection. — Though you may not be called upon to preach, at 
least endeavor to set a good example, remembering that deeds 
often speak louder than words. 



APRIL 21.— ST. ANSELM, ARCHBISHOP. 

NSELM was a native of Piedmont. When a boy of fifteen, 
being forbidden to enter religion, he for a while lost his 
fervor, left his home, and went to various schools in France. 
At length his vocation revived, and he became a monk at Bee in 
Normandv. The fame of his sanctity in this cloister led William 




Rufus, when dangerously ill, to take him for his confessor, and to 
name him to the vacant see of Canterbury. Now began the strife 
of Anselm's life. With new health the king relapsed into his 




192 



LIVES OF* THE SAINTS. 



[April 22. 



former sins, plundered the Church lands, scorned the archbishop's 
rebukes, and forbade him to go to Rome for the pallium. Anselm 
went, and returned only to enter into a more bitter strife with 
William's successor, Henry I. This sovereign claimed the right 
of investing prelates with the ring and crozier, symbols of the 
spiritual jurisdiction which belongs to the Church alone. The 
worldly prelates did not scruple to call St. Anselm a traitor for his 
defence of the Pope's supremacy ; on which the Saint rose, and 
with calm dignity exclaimed, " If any man pretends that I violate 
my faith to my king because I will not reject the authority of the 
Holy See of Rome, let him stand forth and in the name of God I 
will answer him as I ought." No one took up the challenge ; and 
to the disappointment of the king, the barons sided with the Saint, 
for they respected his courage, and saw that his cause was their 
own. Sooner than yield, the archbishop went again into exile, till 
at last the king was obliged to submit to the feeble but inflexible 
old, man. In the midst of his harassing cares, St. Anselm found 
time for writings which have made him celebrated as the father of 
scholastic theology ; while in metaphysics and in science he had 
few equals. He is yet more famous for his devotion to our Bless- 
ed Lady, whose Feast of the Immaculate Conception he was the 
first to establish in the West. He died a.d. 1109. 

Reflection. — Whoever, like St. Anselm, contends for the 
Church's rights, is fighting on the side of God against the tyranny 
of Satan. 



APRIL 22.— ST. SOTER, POPE, MARTYR. 

>c ^5 T. SOTER was raised to the papacy upon the death of St. Ani- 
y^2) cetus, in 173. By the sweetness of his discourses, he com- 
forted all persons with the tenderness of a father, and assisted 
the indigent with liberal alms, especially those who suffered for the 
faith. He liberally extended his charities, according to the cus- 
tom of his predecessors, to remote churches, particularly to that of 
Corinth, to which he addressed an excellent letter, as St. Dionysius 
of Corinth testifies in his letter of thanks, who adds that his letter 
was found worthy to be read for their edification on Sundays 
at their assemblies to celebrate the divine mysteries, together with 
the letter of St. Clement, pope. St. Soter vigorously opposed the 
heresy of Montanus, and governed the Church to the year 177. 



April 22.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



193 



ST. LEONIDES, MARTYR. 

^Tf^HE emperor Severus, in the year 202, which was the tenth of 
•wK* his reign, raised a bloody persecution, which filled the whole 
empire with martyrs, but especially Egypt. The most illus- 
trious of those who, by their triumphs, ennobled and edified the 
city of Alexandria, was Leonides, father of the great Origen. He 
was a Christian philosopher, and excellently versed both in the 
profane and sacred sciences. He had seven sons, the eldest of 
whom was Origen, whom he brought up with abundance of care, 
returning God thanks for having blessed him with a son of such 




an excellent disposition for learning, and a very great zeal for 
piety. These qualifications endeared him greatly to his father, 
who, after his son was baptized, would come to his bedside while 
he was asleep, and, opening his bosom, kiss it respectfully, as be- 
ing the temple of the Holy Ghost. When the persecution raged 
at Alexandria, under Laetus, governor of Egypt, in the tenth year 
of Severus, Leonides was cast into prison. Origen, who was then 
only seventeen years of age, burned with an incredible desire of 
martyrdom, and sought every opportunity of meeting with it. 
But his mother conjured him not to forsake her, and his ardor 
being redoubled at the sight of his father's chains, she was forced 
to lock up all his clothes to oblige him to stay at home. So not 



194 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 23. 



being able to do any more, he wrote a letter to his father in very 
moving terms, strongly exhorting him to look on the crown that 
was offered him with courage and joy, adding this clause, " Take 
heed, Sir, that for our sakes you do not change your mind." Le- 
onides was accordingly beheaded for the faith in 202. His estates 
and goods being all confiscated, and seized for the emperor's use, 
his widow was left with seven children to maintain in the poorest 
condition imaginable ; but Divine Providence was both her com- 
fort and support. 



APRIL 23.— ST. GEORGE, MARTYR. 

T. GEORGE was born in Cappadocia, at the close of the third 
V«S) century, of Christian parents. In early youth he chose a sol- 
dier's life, and soon obtained the favor of Diocletian, who 
advanced him to the grade of tribune. When, however, the Em- 
peror began to persecute the Christians, George rebuked him at 
once sternly and openly for his cruelty, and threw up his commis- 




sion. He was in consequence subjected to a lengthened series of 
torments, and finally beheaded. There was something so inspirit- 
ing in the defiant cheerfulness of the young soldier that every 
Christian felt a personal share in this triumph of Christian forti- 
tude ; and as years rolled on, St. George became a type of succes- 



April 24.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



195 



ful combat against evil, the slayer of the dragon, the darling theme 
of camp song and story, until " so thick a shade his very glory round 
him made" that his real lineaments became hard to trace. Even be- 
yond the circle of Christendom he was held in honor, and invading 
Saracens taught themselves to except from desecration the image of 
him they hailed as the " White-horsed Knight." The devotion to St. 
George is one of the most ancient and widely spread in the Church. 
In the East, a church of St. George is ascribed to Constantine, and 
his name is invoked in the most ancient liturgies ; whilst in the 
West, Malta, Barcelona, Valencia, Arragon, Genoa, and England 
have chosen him as their patron. 

Reflection. — " What shall I say of fortitude, without which 
neither wisdom nor justice is of any worth ? Fortitude is not of 
the body, but is a constancy of soul ; wherewith we are conquerors 
in righteousness, patiently bear all adversities, and in prosperity 
are not puffed up. This fortitude he lacks who is overcome by 
pride, anger, greed, drunkenness, and the like. Neither have they 
fortitude who when in adversity make shift to escape at their 
souls' expense ; wherefore the Lord saith, ' Fear not those who 
kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.' In like manner those 
who are puffed up in prosperity and abandon themselves to exces- 
sive joviality cannot be called strong. For how can they be called 
strong who cannot hide and repress the heart's emotion ? Forti- 
tude is never conquered, or if conquered, is not fortitude." — Sf. 
Bruno. 

APRIL 24. — ST. FIDELIS OF SIGMARINGEN. 

^[ji^IDELIS was born at Sigmaringen in 1577, of noble parents 
In his youth he frequently approached the Sacraments, 
visited the sick and the poor, and spent moreover many 
hours before the altar. For a time he followed the legal pro- 
fession, and was remarkable for his advocacy of the poor and his 
respectful language towards his opponents. Finding it difficult 
to become both a rich lawyer and a good Christian, Fidelis 
entered the Capuchin Order, and embraced a life of austerity and 
prayer. Hair shirts, iron-pointed girdles and disciplines were 
penances too light for his fervor, and being filled with a desire of 
martyrdom, he rejoiced at being sent to Switzerland by the newly- 
founded Congregation of Propaganda, and braved every peril to 
rescue souls from the diabolical heresy of Calvin. When preach- 
ing at Sevis, he was fired at by a Calvinist, but the fear of death 




196 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 25. 




could not deter him from proclaiming divine truth. After his 
sermon, he was waylaid by a body of Protestants headed by a 
minister, who attacked him and tried to force him to embrace 
their so-called reform. But he said, " I came to refute your 
errors, not to embrace them ; I will never renounce Catholic doc- 
trine, which is the truth of all ages, and I fear not death." On 
this they fell upon him with their poignards, and the first martyr 
of Propaganda went to receive his palm. 

Reflection. — We delight in decorating the altars of God with 
flowers, lights, and jewels, and it is right to do so ; but if we wish 
to offer to God gifts of higher value, let us, in imitation of St. 
Fidelis, save the souls who but for us would be lost ; for so we 
shall offer him, as it were, the jewels of paradise. 

APRIL 25.— ST. MARK, EVANGELIST. 

fT. MARK was converted to the faith by the Prince of the 
Apostles, whom he afterwards accompanied to Rome, act- 
ing there as his secretary or interpreter. When St. Peter 
was writing his first Epistle to the Churches of Asia, he affec- 
tionately joins with his own salutation that of his faithful com- 
panion, whom he calls " my son Mark." The Roman people en- 



April 25.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



197 




treated St. Mark to put in writing for them the substance of St. 
Peter's frequent discourses on our Lord's life. This the Evange- 
list did under the eye and with the express sanction of the Apos- 
tle, and every page of his brief but graphic Gospel so bore the 
impress of St. Peter's character, that the Fathers used to name it 
" Peter's Gospel." St. Mark was now sent to Egypt to found the 
Church of Alexandria. Here his disciples became the wonder of 
the world for their piety and asceticism, so that St. Jerome speaks 
of St. Mark as the father of the anchorites, who at a later time 
thronged the Egyptian deserts. Here too he set up the first 
Christian school, the fruitful mother of many illustrious doctors 
and bishops. After governing his see for many years, St. Mark 
was one day seized by the heathen, dragged by ropes over stones, 
and thrown into prison. On the morrow the torture was repeated, 
and having been consoled by a vision of angels and the voice of 
Jesus, St. Mark went to his reward. 

It is to St. Mark that we owe the many slight touches which 
often give such vivid coloring to the Gospel scenes, and help us 
to picture to ourselves the very gestures and looks of our Blessed 
Lord. It is he alone who notes that in the Temptation Jesus was 
" with the beasts ;" that He slept in the boat " on a pillow ;" that 
He "embraced" the little children. He alone preserves for us 
the commanding words "Peace, be still!" by which the storm 



I98 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [April 26. 

was quelled ; or even the very sounds of His voice, the " Eph- 
phetha" and " Talitha cum i," by which the dumb were made to 
speak and the dead to rise. So too the " looking round about 
with anger," and the "sighing deeply," long treasured in the 
memory of the penitent Apostle, who was himself converted by 
his Saviour's look, are here recorded by his faithful interpreter. 

Reflection. — Learn from St. Mark to keep the image of the 
Son of Man ever before your mind, and to ponder every syllable 
which fell from His lips. 

APRIL 26.— SS. CLETUS AND MARCELLINUS, POPES, 

MARTYRS. 

•^gfcj T. CLETUS was the third Bishop of Rome, and succeeded 
jkS) St. Linus, which circumstance alone shows his eminent vir- 
tue among the first disciples of St. Peter in the West. He 
sat twelve years, from 76 to 89. The canon of the Roman mass, 
13ede, and other martyrologists style him a martyr. He was 




buried near St. Linus, on the Vatican, and his relics still remain 
in that church. 

St. Marcellinus succeeded St. Caius in the Bishopric of Rome 
in 296, about the time that Diocletian set himself up for a deity, 



April 27.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



and impiously claimed divine honors. In those stormy times 
of persecution, Marcellinus acquired great glory. He sat in St. 
Peter's chair eight years, three months, and twenty-five days, 
dying in 304, a year after the cruel persecution broke out, in 
which he gained much honor. He has been styled a martyr, 
though his blood was not shed in the cause of religion. 

Reflection. — It is a fundamental maxim of the Christian 
morality, and a truth which Christ has established in the clearest 
terms, and in innumerable passages of the Gospel, that the cross 
or sufferings and mortification are the road to eternal bliss. 
They, therefore, who lead not here a crucified and mortified life, 
•are unworthy ever to possess the unspeakable joys of His king- 
dom. Our Lord himself, our model and our head, walked in this 
path, and His great Apostle puts us in mind that he entered into 
bliss only by his blood and by the cross. 

]f APRIL 27.— ST. ZITA, VIRGIN. 

ITA lived for forty-eight years in the service of Fatinelli, a 
citizen of Lucca. During this time she rose each morning, 
while the household were asleep, to hear Mass, and then 
toiled incessantly till night came, doing the work of others as 
well as her own. Once Zita, absorbed in prayer, remained in 
church past the usual hour of her bread-making. She hastened 
home, reproaching herself with neglect of duty, and found the 
bread made and ready for the oven. She never doubted that her 
mistress or one of her servants had kneaded it, and going to them, 
thanked them ; but they were astonished. No human being had 
made the bread. A delicious perfume rose from it, for angels had 
made it during her prayer. For years her master and mistress 
treated her as a mere drudge, while her fellow-servants, resenting 
her diligence as a reproach to themselves, insulted and struck her. 
Zita united these sufferings with those of Christ her Lord, never 
changing the sweet tone of her voice, nor forgetting her gentle 
and quiet ways. At length Fatinelli, seeing the success which 
attended her undertakings, gave her charge of his children and of 
the household. She dreaded this dignity more than the worst 
humiliation, but scrupulously fulfilled her trust. By her holy 
economy her master's goods were multiplied, while the poor were 
fed at his door. Gradually her unfailing patience conquered the 
jealousy of her fellow-servants, and she became their advocate with 




200 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 28. 




their hot-tempered master, who dared .not give way to his anger 
before Zita. In the end her prayer and toil sanctified the whole 
house, and drew down upon it the benediction of Heaven. She 
died a.d. 1272, and in the moment of her death a bright star ap- 
pearing above her attic showed that she had gained eternal rest. 

Reflection. — " What must I do to be saved ?" said a certain one 
in fear of damnation. " Work and pray, pray and work," a voice 
replied, " and thou shalt be saved." The whole life of St. Zita 
teaches us this truth. 



APRIL 28.— ST. PAUL OF THE CROSS. 

tHE eighty-one years of this Saint's life were modelled on the 
Passion of Jesus Christ. In his childhood, when praying in 
church, a heavy bench fell on his foot, but the boy took no 
notice of the bleeding wound, and spoke of it as " a rose sent from 
God." A few years later, the vision of a scourge with " love" 
written on its lashes assured him that his thirst for penance would 
be satisfied. In the hope of dying for the Faith, he enlisted in a 
crusade against the Turks; but a voice from the Tabernacle 
warned him that he was to serve Christ alone, and that he should 
found a congregation in His honor. At the command of his 



April 28.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



201 



bishop he began while a layman to preach the Passion, and a 
series of crosses tried the reality of his vocation. All his first 
companions, save his brother, deserted him ; the Sovereign Pon- 
tiff refused him an audience ; and it was only after a delay of 
seventeen years that the Papal approbation was obtained, and the 
first house of the Passionists was opened on Monte Argentario, 
the spot which our Lady had pointed out. St. Paul chose as the 
badge of his Order a heart with three nails, in memory of the suf- 
ferings of Jesus, but for himself he invented a more secret and 
durable sign. Moved by the same holy impulse as Blessed Henry 
Suso, St. Jane Frances, and other Saints, he branded on his side 
the Holy Name, and its characters were found there after death. 
His heart beat with a supernatural palpitation, which was especi- 
ally vehement on Fridays, and the heat at times was so intense as 
to scorch his shirt in the region of his heart. Through fifty years 
of incessant bodily pain, and amidst all his trials, Paul read the love 
of Jesus everywhere, and would cry out to the flowers and grass, 
" Oh! be quiet, be quiet," as if they were reproaching him with in- 
gratitude. He died whilst the Passion was being read to him, 
and so passed with Jesus from the cross to glory. 



ST. VITALIS, MARTYR. 

T. VITALIS was a citizen of Milan, and is said to have been 
the father of SS. Gervasius and Protasius. The divine pro- 
vidence conducted him to Ravenna, where he saw a Christian 
named Ursicinus, who was condemned to lose his head for his 
faith,- standing aghast at the sight of death, and seeming ready to 
yield. Vitalis was extremely moved at this spectacle. He knew 
his double obligation of preferring the glory of God and the 
eternal salvation of his neighbor to his own corporal life : he 
therefore boldly and successfully encouraged Ursicinus to tri- 
umph over death, and after his martyrdom, carried off his body, 
and respectfully interred it. The judge, whose name was Pau- 
linus, being informed of this, caused Vitalis to be apprehended, 
stretched on the rack, and, after other torments, to be buried alive 
in a place called the Palm-tree, in Ravenna. His wife, Valeria, 
returning from Ravenna to Milan, was beaten to death by peasants, 
because she refused to join them in an idolatrous festival and riot. 

Reflection. — We are not all called to the sacrifice of martyr- 
dom ; but we are all bound to make our lives a continued sacri- 




202 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 29. 




fice of ourselves to God, and to perform every action in this per- 
fect spirit of sacrifice. Thus we shall both live and die to God, 
perfectly resigned to His holy will in all His appointments. 



APRIL 29.— ST. PETER, MARTYR. 

JTLN 1205 the glorious martyr Peter was born at Verona of 
^ heretical parents. He went to a Catholic school, and his 
Manichean uncle asked what he learnt. " The Creed," answered 
Peter; " I believe in God, Creator of heaven and earth." No per- 
suasion could shake his faith, and at fifteen he received the habit 
from St. Dominic himself at Bologna. After ordination, he 
preached to the heretics of Lombardy, and converted multitudes. 
St. Peter was constantly obliged to dispute with heretics, and al- 
though he was able to confound them, still the devil took occasion 
thence to tempt him once against faith. Instantly he had recourse 
to prayer before an image of our Lady, and heard a voice saying 
to him the words of Jesus Christ in the Gospel, " I have prayed 
for thee, Peter, that thy faith may not fail; and thou shalt con- 
firm thy brethren in it." Once when exhorting a vast crowd 
under the burning sun, the heretics defied him to procure shade. 
He prayed, and a cloud overshadowed the audience. In spite of 
his sanctity, he was foully slandered and even punished for immor- 
ality. He submitted humbly, but complained in prayer to Jesus 



April 29.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



203 



crucified. The crucifix spoke, "And I, Peter, what did I do?" 
Every day, as he elevated at Mass the Precious Blood, he prayed, 
"Grant, Lord, that I may die for Thee, who for me didst die." 
His prayer was answered. The heretics, confounded by him, 
sought his life. Two of them attacked him as he was returning 
to Milan, and struck his head with an axe. St. Peter fell, com- 
mended himself to God, dipped his finger in his own blood, and 
wrote on the ground, " I believe in God, Creator of heaven and 
earth." They then stabbed him in the side, and he received his 
crown. 

Reflection. — From a boy St. Peter boldly professed his faith 
amongst heretics. He spent his life in preaching the Faith to 
heretics, and received the glorious and long-desired crown of mar- 
tyrdom from heretics. We are surrounded by heretics. Are we 
courageous, firm, zealous, full of prayer for their conversion, un- 
flinching in our profession of faith ? 

ST. HUGH, ABBOT OF CLUNI. 



T. HUGH was a prince related to the sovereign house of the 
1 dukes of Burgundy, and had his education under the tuition 
of his pious mother, and under the care of Hugh, bishop of 




Auxerre, his great-uncle. From his infancy he was exceedingly 
given to prayer and meditation, and his life was remarkably inno- 



204 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[April 30. 



cent and holy. One day hearing an account of the wonderful 
sanctity of the monks of Cluni, under St. Odilo, he was so moved 
that he set out that moment, and going thither, humbly begged 
the monastic habit. After a rigid novitiate, he made his profes- 
sion in 1039, being sixteen years old. His extraordinary virtue, 
especially his admirable humility, obedience, charity, sweetness, 
prudence, and zeal, gained him the respect of the whole commun- 
ity; and upon the death of Saint Odilo, in 1049, though only 
twenty-five years old, he succeeded to the government of that 
great abbey, which he held sixty-two years. He received to the 
religious profession Hugh, duke of "Burgundy, and died on the 
twenty-ninth of April, in 1109, aged eighty-five. He was canon- 
ized twelve years after his death by Pope Calixtus II. 



APRIL 30.— ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA. 

fATHERINE, the daughter of a humble tradesman, was 
raised up to be the guide and guardian of the Church in 
one of the darkest periods of its history, the fourteenth cen- 
tury. As a child, prayer was her delight. She would say the 
" Hail Mary" on each step as she mounted the stairs, and was 
granted in reward a vision of Christ in glory. When but seven 
years old, she made a vow of virginity, and afterwards endured 
bitter persecution for refusing to marry. Our Lord gave her His 
Heart in exchange for her own, communicated her with His own 
hands, and stamped on her body the print of His wounds. At the 
age of fifteen she entered the Third Order of St. Dominic, but 
continued to reside in her father's shop, where she united a life 
of active charity with the prayer of a contemplative Saint. From 
this obscure home the seraphic virgin was summoned to defend 
the Church's cause. Armed with Papal authority, and accompa- 
nied by three confessors, she travelled through Italy, reducing 
rebellious cities to the obedience of the Holy See, and winning 
hardened souls to God. In the face well-nigh of the whole world 
she sought out Gregory XI. at Avignon, brought him back to 
Rome, and by her letters to the kings and queens of Europe made 
good the Papal cause. She was the counsellor of Urban VI., and 
sternly rebuked the disloyal cardinals who had part in electing an 
Anti-pope. Long had the holy virgin foretold the terrible schism 
which began ere she died. Day and night she wept and prayed 
for unity and peace. But the devil excited the Roman people 
against the Pope, so that some sought the life of Christ's Vicar. 



May I.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



205 




With intense earnestness did St. Catherine beg our Lord to pre- 
vent this enormous crime. In spirit she saw the whole city full 
of demons tempting the people to resist and even slay the Pope. 
The seditious temper was subdued by Catherine's prayers; but 
the devils vented their malice by scourging the Saint herself, who 
gladly endured all for God and His Church. She died at Rome 
at the age of thirty-three, a.d. 1380. 

Reflection. — The seraphic St. Catherine willingly sacrificed 
the delights of contemplation to labor for the Church and the 
Apostolic See. How deeply do the troubles of the Church and 
the consequent loss of souls afflict us ? How often do we pray 
for the Church and the Pope ? 



MAY 1.— SS. PHILIP AND JAMES, APOSTLES. 

kTr)HILIP was one of the first chosen disciples of Christ. On 
«/lh^ the way from Judaea to Galilee, our Lord found Philip, and 
said, "Follow Me." Philip straightway obeyed; and then 
in his zeal and charity sought to win Nathaniel also, saying, " We 
have found Him of whom Moses and the prophets did write, Je- 
sus of Nazareth ;" and when Nathaniel in wonder asked, " Can 
any good come out of Nazareth?" Philip simply answered, "Come 



20G 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May k 



and see," and brought him to Jesus. Another characteristic say- 
ing of this Apostle is preserved for us by St. John. Christ in 
His last discourse had spoken of His Father; and Philip ex- 
claimed in the fervor of his thirst for God, " Lord, show us the 
Father, and it is enough." 

St. James the Less, the author of an inspired Epistle, was also 
one of the Twelve. St. Paul tells us that he was favored by a 
special apparition of Christ after the Resurrection. On the dis- 
persion of the Apostles among the nations, St. James was left as. 
Bishop of Jerusalem ; and even the Jews held in such high vener- 




ation his purity, mortification, and prayer, that they named him 
the Just. The earliest of Church historians has handed down 
many traditions of St. James's sanctity. He was always a virgin, 
says Hegesippus, and consecrated to God. He drank no wine, 
wore no sandals on his feet, and but a single garment on his body. 
He prostrated himself so much in prayer that the skin of his knees 
was hardened like a camel's hoof. The Jews, it is said, used out 
of respect to touch the hem of his garment. He was indeed a 
living proof of his own words, " The wisdom that is from above 
first indeed is chaste, then peaceable, modest, full of mercy and 
good fruits." He sat beside St. Peter and St. Paul at the Council 
of Jerusalem ; and when St. Paul at a later time escaped the fury 
of the Jews by appealing to Caesar, the people took vengeance on 



May 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



207 



James, and crying, " The just one hath erred," stoned him to 
death. 

Reflection. — The Church commemorates on the same day SS. 
Philip and James, whose bodies lie side by side at Rome. They 
represent to us two aspects of Christian holiness. The first 
preaches faith, the second works ; the one holy aspirations, the 
other purity of heart. 

MAY 2.— ST. ATHANASIUS, BISHOP. 

tTHANASIUS was born in Egypt towards the end of the 
third century, and was from his youth pious, learned, and 
deeply versed in the sacred writings, as befitted one whom 
God had chosen to be the champion and defender of His Church 
against the Arian heresy. Though only a deacon, he was chosen 
by his bishop to go with him to the Council of Nicaea, a.d. 325, 
and attracted the attention of all by the learning and ability with 




which he defended the Faith. A few months later, he became Pa- 
triarch of Alexandria, and for forty-six years he bore, often well- 
nigh alone, the whole brunt of the Arian assault. On the refusal 
of the Saint to restore Arius to Catholic communion, the emperor 
ordered the Patriarch of Constantinople to do so. The wretched 



208 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 3. 



heresiarch took an oath that he had always believed as the Church 
believes ; and the patriarch, after vainly using every effort to move 
the emperor, had recourse to fasting and prayer, that God would 
avert from the Church the frightful sacrilege. The day came for 
the solemn entrance of Arius into the great church of Sancta So- 
phia. The heresiarch and his party set out glad and in triumph. But 
before he reached the church, death smote him swiftly and awfully, 
and the dreaded sacrilege was averted. St. Athanasius stood un- 
moved against four Roman emperors; was banished five times; 
was the butt of every insult, calumny, and wrong the Arians could 
devise, and lived in constant peril of death. Though firm as ada- 
mant in defence of the Faith, he was meek and humble, pleasant 
and winning in converse, beloved by his flock, unwearied in la- 
bors, in prayer, in mortifications, and in zeal for souls. In the 
year 373 his stormy life closed in peace, rather that his people 
would have it so than that his enemies were weary of persecuting 
him. He left to the Church the whole and ancient Faith, defend- 
ed and explained in writings rich in thought and learning, clear, 
keen, and stately in- expression. He is honored as one of the 
greatest of the Doctors of the Church. 

Reflection. — The Catholic Faith, says St. Augustine, is more 
precious far than all the riches and treasures of earth ; more glo- 
rious and greater than all its honors, all its possessions. This it 
is which saves sinners, gives light to the blind, restores penitents, 
perfects the just, and is the crown of martyrs. 

/ 

MAY 3.— THE DISCOVERY OF THE HOLY CROSS. 

OD having restored peace to His Church, by exalting Con- 
stantine the Great to the imperial throne, that pious prince, 
who had triumphed over his enemies by the miraculous 
power of the Cross, was very desirous of expressing his veneration 
for the holy places which had been honored and sanctified by the 
presence and sufferings of our blessed Redeemer on earth, and 
accordingly resolved to build a magnificent church in the city of 
Jerusalem. St. Helen, the emperor's mother, desiring to visit the 
holy places there, undertook a journey into Palestine in 326, 
though at that time near eighty years of age ; and on her arrival 
at Jerusalem, was inspired with a great desire to find the identical 
cross on which Christ had suffered for our sins. But there was 
no mark or tradition, even amongst the Christians, to show where 




May 3.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



209 



it lay. The heathens, out of an aversion to Christianity, had done 
what they could to conceal the place where our Saviour was 
buried, by heaping on it a great quantity of stones and rubbish, 
and building on it a temple to Venus. They had, moreover, 
erected a statue of Jupiter in the place where our Saviour rose 
from the dead. Helen, to carry out her pious design, consulted 
every one at Jerusalem and near it, whom she thought likely to 
assist her in finding out the cross ; and was credibly informed that, 
if she could find out the sepulchre, she would likewise find the in- 
struments of the punishment ; it being the custom among the Jews 




to make a hole near the place where the body of a criminal was 
buried, and to throw into it whatever belonged to his execution. 
The pious empress, therefore, ordered the profane buildings to be 
pulled down, the statues to be broken in pieces, and the rubbish 
to be removed; and, upon digging to a great depth, the holy 
sepulchre, and near it three crosses, also the nails which had 
pierced our Saviour's body, and the title which had been fixed to 
His cross, were found. By this discovery, they knew that one of 
the three crosses was that which they were in quest of, and that 
the others belonged to the two malefactors between whom our 
Saviour had been crucified. But, as the title was found separate 
from the cross, it was difficult to distinguish which of the three 
crosses was that on which our Divine Redeemer consummated his 



2IO 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 3. 



sacrifice for the salvation of the world. In this perplexity the 
holy Bishop Macarius, knowing that one of the principal ladies of 
the city lay extremely ill, suggested to the empress to cause the 
three crosses to be carried to the sick person, not doubting but 
God would discover which was the cross they sought for. This 
being done, St. Macarius prayed that God would have regard to 
their faith, and, after his prayer, applied the crosses singly to the 
patient, who was immediately and perfectly recovered by the 
touch of one of the three crosses, the other two having been tried 
without effect. St. Helen, full of joy at having found the trea- 
sure which she had so earnestly sought and so highly esteemed, 
built a church on the spot, and lodged the cross there with great 
veneration, having provided an extraordinarily rich case for it. 
She afterward carried part of it to the Emperor Constantine, then 
at Constantinople, who received it with great veneration ; another 
part she sent or rather carried to Rome, to be placed in the church 
which she had built there, called Of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem, 
where it remains to this day. The title was sent by St. Helen to 
the same church, and "placed on the top of an arch, where it was 
found in a case of lead in 1492. The inscription in Hebrew, Greek, 
and Latin is in red letters, and the wood was whitened. Thus it 
was in 1492 ; but these colors are since faded. Also the words Jesus 
and Judceorum are eaten away. The board is nine, but must have 
been twelve inches long. The main part of the cross St. Helen 
inclosed in a silver shrine, and committed to the care of St. Maca- 
rius, that it might be delivered down to posterity, as an object of 
veneration. It was accordingly kept with singular care and respect 
in the magnificent church which she and her son built in Jerusa- 
lem. St. Paulinus relates that, though chips were almost daily cut 
off from it and given to devout persons, yet the sacred wood suf- 
fered thereby no diminution. It is affirmed by St. Cyril of Jerusa- 
lem, twenty-five years after the discovery, that pieces of the cross 
were spread all over the earth ; he compares this wonder to the 
miraculous feeding of five thousand men, as recorded in the Gospel. 
The discovery of the cross must have happened about the month 
of May, or early in the spring. For St. Helen went the same year 
to Constantinople, and from thence to Rome, where she died in 
the arms of her son, on the 18th of August, 326. 

Reflection. — In every pious undertaking, the beginning, 
merely, does not suffice. " Whoso shall persevere unto the end, 
he shall be saved." 



r 



MAY 4.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 211 

MAY 4.— ST. MONICA. 

ONICA, the mother of St. Augustine, was born in 332. 
After a girlhood of singular innocence and piety, she was 
given in marriage to Patritius, a pagan. She at once 
devoted herself to his conversion, praying for him always, and 
winning his reverence and love by the holiness of her life and her 
affectionate forbearance. She was rewarded by seeing him bap- 
tized a year before his death. When her son Augustine went 
astray in faith and manners, her prayers and tears were incessant. 
She was once very urgent with a learned bishop that he would 




talk to her son in order to bring him to a better mind, but he de- 
clined, despairing of success with one at once so able and so head- 
strong. However, on witnessing her prayers and tears, he bade her 
be of good courage; for it might not be that the child of those 
tears should perish. By going to Italy, Augustine could for a 
time free himself from his mother's importunities ; but he could 
not escape from her prayers, which encompassed him like the pro- 
vidence of God. She followed him to Italy, and there by his 
marvellous conversion her sorrow was turned into joy. At Ostia, 
on their homeward journey, as Augustine and his mother sat at a 
window conversing of the life of the blessed, she turned to him 
and said, " Son, there is nothing now I care for in this life. What 
I shall now do or why I am here, I know not. The one reason I 



212 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 5. 



had for wishing to linger in this life a little longer was that I 
might see you a Catholic Christian before I died. This has God 
granted me superabundantly in seeing you reject earthly happi- 
ness to become His servant. What do I here?" A few days after- 
wards, she had an attack of fever, and died in the year 387. 

Reflection. — It is impossible to set any bounds to what per- 
severing prayer may do. It gives man a share in the Divine Om- 
nipotence. St. Augustine's soul lay bound in the chains of heresy 
and impurity, both of which had by long habit grown inveterate. 
They were broken by his mother's prayers. 

MAY 5.— ST. PIUS V. 

DOMINICAN friar from his fifteenth year, Michael Ghis- 
lieri, as a simple religious, as inquisitor, as bishop, and as 
cardinal, was famous for his intrepid defence of the 
Church's faith and discipline, and for the spotless purity of his 
own life. His first care as Pope was to reform the Roman court 




and capital by the strict example of his household and the severe 
punishment of all offenders. He next endeavored to obtain from 
the Catholic powers the recognition of the Tridentine decrees, two 
of which he urgently enforced — the residence of bishops, and the 
establishment of diocesan seminaries. He revised the Missal and 




May 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



213 



Breviary, and reformed the ecclesiastical music. Nor was he less 
active in protecting the Church without. We see him at the same 
time supporting the Catholic King of France against the Hugue- 
not rebels, encouraging Mary Queen of Scots, in the bitterness of 
her captivity, and excommunicating her rival the usurper Eliza- 
beth, when the best blood of England had flowed upon the scaf- 
fold, and the measure of her crimes was full. But it was at 
Lepanto that the Saint's power was most manifest ; there, in 
October, 15 71, by the holy league which he had formed, but still 
more by his prayers to the great Mother of God, the aged Pontiff 
crushed the Ottoman forces, and saved Christendom from the 
Turk. Six months later, St. Pius died, having reigned but six 
years. St. Pius was accustomed to kiss the feet of his crucifix on 
leaving or entering his room. One day the feet moved away from 
his lips. Sorrow filled his heart, and he made acts of contrition, 
fearing that he must have committed some secret offence, but still 
he could not kiss the feet. It was afterwards found that they had 
been poisoned by an enemy. 

Reflection. — " Thy Cross, O Lord, is the source of all bless- 
ings, the cause of all graces : by it the faithful find strength in 
weakness, glory in shame, life in death," — St. Leo. 

MAY 6.— ST. JOHN BEFORE THE LATIN GATE. 

fN the year 95, St. John, who was the only surviving apostle, 
and governed all the Churches of Asia, was apprehended at 
Ephesus, and sent prisoner to Rome. The Emperor Domitian 
did not relent at the sight of the venerable old man, but con- 
demned him to be cast into a caldron of boiling oil. The martyr 
doubtless heard, with great joy, this barbarous sentence ; the most 
cruel torments seemed to him light and most agreeable, because 
they would, he hoped, unite him forever to his divine Master and 
Saviour. But God accepted his will, and crowned his desire ; he 
conferred on him the honor and merit of martyrdom, but sus- 
pended the operation of the fire, as he had formerly preserved the 
three children from hurt in the Babylonian furnace. The seething 
oil was changed in his regard into an invigorating bath, and the 
Saint came out more refreshed than when he had entered the cal- 
dron. Domitian saw this miracle without drawing from it the least 
advantage, but remained hardene4 in his iniquity. However, he 
contented himself after this with banishing the holy apostle into 



214 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 7. 



the little island of Patmos. St. John returned to Ephesus, in the 
reign of Nerva, who, by mildness, during his short reign of one 
year and four months, labored to restore the faded lustre of the 
Roman Empire. This glorious triumph of St. John happened 
without the gate of Rome, called Latina. A church which since 
has always borne this title was consecrated in the same place in 
memory of this miracle, under the first Christian Emperors. 

Reflection. — St. John suffered above the other Saints a martyr- 
dom of love, being a martyr, and more than a martyr, at the foot 
of the cross of his divine Master. All his sufferings were by love 




and compassion imprinted in his soul, and thus shared by him. 
O singular happiness, to have stood under the cross of Christ ! O 
extraordinary privilege, to have suffered martyrdom in the person 
of Jesus, and been eye-witness of all He did or endured ! If nature 
revolt within us against suffering, let us call to mind those words 
of the Divine Master : " Thou knowest not now wherefore ; but 
thou shalt know hereafter." 

MAY 7.— ST. STANISLAS, BISHOP, MARTYR. 

TANISLAS was born in answer to prayer when his parents 
were advanced in age. Out of gratitude they educated him 
for the Church, and from a holy priest he became in time 
Bishop of Cracow. Boleslas II. was then King of Poland — a 




May 7.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



215 



prince of good disposition, but spoilt by a long course of victory 
and success. After many acts of lust and cruelty, he outraged the 
whole kingdom by carrying off the wife of one of his nobles. 
Against this public scandal, the chaste and gentle bishop alone 
raised his voice. Having commended the matter to God, he went 
down to the palace and openly rebuked the king for his crime 
against God and his subjects, and threatened to excommunicate 
him if he persisted in his sin. To slander the Saint's character, 
Boleslas suborned the nephews of one Paul, lately dead, to swear 
that their uncle had never been paid for land bought by the bishop 




for the Church. The Saint stood fearlessly before the king's 
tribunal, though all his witnesses forsook him, and guaranteed to 
bring the dead man to witness for him within three days. On the 
third day, after many prayers and tears, he raised Paul to life, and 
led him in his grave-clothes before the king. Boleslas made a 
show for a while of a better life. Soon, however, he relapsed into 
the most scandalous excesses, and the bishop, finding all remon- 
strance useless, pronounced the sentence of excommunication. In 
defiance of the censure, on May 8th, 1079, the king went down to 
a chapel where the bishop himself was saying Mass, and sent in 
three companies of soldiers to dispatch him at the altar. Each in 
turn came out saying they had been scared by a light from heaven. 
Then the king rushed in and slew the Saint at the altar with his 
own hand. 



2l6 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 8. 



Reflection. — The safest correction of vice is a blameless life. 
Yet there are times when silence would make us answerable for 
the sins of others. At such times, let us, in the name of God, 
rebuke the offender without fear. 

MAY 8.-THE APPARITION OF ST. MICHAEL THE ARCH- 
ANGEL. 

3TLT is manifested, from the holy Scriptures, that God is pleased 
^ to make frequent use of the ministry of the heavenly spirits in 
the dispensations of His providence in this world, and especi- 
ally towards man. Hence the name of Angel (which is not pro- 
perly a denomination of nature, but office) has been appropriated 
to them. The angels are all pure spirits ; they are, by a property 
of their nature, immortal, as every spirit is. They have the power 
of moving or conveying themselves from place to place, and such 
is their activity that it is not easy for us to conceive it. Among 
the holy archangels, there are particularly distinguished in holy 




writ SS. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. St. Michael, whom the 
Church honors this day, was the prince of the faithful angels who 
opposed Lucifer and his associates in their revolt against God. 
As the devil is the sworn enemy of God's holy Church, St. Michael 
is its special protector against his assaults and stratagems. This 



May 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



217 



holy archangel has ever been honored in the Christian Church, as 
her guardian under God, and as the protector of the faithful ; for 
God is pleased to employ the zeal and charity of the good angels and 
their leader against the malice of the devil. To thank His ador- 
able goodness for this benefit of His merciful providence, is this 
festival instituted by the Church in honor of the good angels : in 
which devotion she has been encouraged by several apparitions of 
this glorious archangel. Among others, it is recorded that St. 
Michael, in a vision, admonished the Bishop of Siponto to build a 
church in his honor on Mount Gargano, near Manfredonia, in the 
kingdom of Naples. When the Emperor Otho III. had, contrary 
to his word, put to death, for rebellion, Crescentius, a Roman 
senator, being touched with remorse, he cast himself at the feet of 
St. Romuald, who, in satisfaction for his crime, enjoined him to 
walk barefoot, on a penitential pilgrimage, to St. Michael's on 
Mount Gargano: which penance he performed in 1002. It is 
mentioned in particular of this special guardian and protector of 
the Church that, in the persecution of Antichrist, he will power- 
fully stand up in her defence : "At that time shall Michael rise 
up, the great prince, who standeth for the children of thy people." 

Reflection. — St. Michael is not only the protector of the 
Church, but of every faithful soul. He defeated the devil by 
humility; we are enlisted in the same warfare. His arms were 
humility and ardent love of God ; the same must be our weapons. 
We ought to regard this archangel as our leader under God : and, 
courageously resisting the devil in all his assaults, to cry out, 
Who can be compared to God ? 

MAY 9.— ST. GREGORY NAZIANZEN. 

REGORY was born of saintly parents, and was the chosen 
friend of St. Basil. They studied together at Athens, turned 
at the same time from the fairest worldly prospects, and for 
some years lived together in seclusion, self-discipline, and toil. 
Gregory was raised, almost by force, to the priesthood ; and was 
in time made Bishop of Nazianzum by St. Basil, who had become 
Archbishop of Caesarea. When he was fifty years old, he was cho- 
sen, for his rare gifts and his conciliatory disposition, to be Pa- 
triarch of Constantinople, then distracted and laid waste by Arian 
and other heretics. In that city he labored with wonderful suc- 
cess. The Arians were so irritated at the decay of their heresy 




218 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 9. 



that they pursued the Saint with outrage, calumny, and violence, 
and at length resolved to take away his life. For this purpose 
they chose a resolute young man, who readily undertook the sa- 
crilegious commission. But God did not allow him to carry it out. 
He was touched with remorse, and cast himself at the Saint's feet, 
avowing his sinful intent. St. Gregory at once forgave him, treat- 
ed him with all kindness, and received him amongst his friends, to 
the wonder and edification of the whole city, and to the confusion 
of the heretics, whose crime had served only as a foil to the vir- 
tue of the Saint. St. Jerome boasts that he had sat at his feet, 




and calls him his master and his catechist in Holy Scripture. But 
his lowliness, his austerities, the insignificance of his person, and 
above all his very success, drew down on him the hatred of the 
enemies of the Faith. He was persecuted by the magistrates, 
stoned by the rabble, and thwarted and deserted even by his bro- 
ther bishops. During the second General Council, he resigned 
his see, hoping thus to restore peace to the tormented city, and re- 
tired to his native town, where he died a.d. 390. He was a grace- 
ful poet, a preacher at once eloquent and solid ; and as a cham- 
pion of the Faith so well equipped, so strenuous, and so exact, 
that he is called St. Gregory the Theologian. 

Reflection. — "We must overcome our enemies," said St. Gre- 
gory, " by gentleness ; win them over by forbearance. Let them 



May io.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



219 



be punished by their own conscience, not by our wrath. Let us 
not at once wither the fig-tree, from which a more skilful gar- 
dener may yet entice fruit." 

MAY 10.— ST. ANTONINUS, BISHOP. 

tNTONINUS, or Little Antony, as he was called from his 
small stature, was born at Florence in 1389. After a child- 
hood of singular holiness, he begged to be admitted into 
the Dominican house at Fiesole ; but the Superior, to test his sin- 




cerity and perseverance, told him he must first learn by heart the 
book of the Decretals, containing several hundred pages. This 
apparently impossible task was accomplished within twelve 
months ; and Antoninus received the coveted habit in his sixteenth 
year. While still very young, he filled several important posts of 
his Order, and was consulted on questions of difficulty by the 
most learned men of his day; being known, for his wonderful 
prudence, as " the Counsellor." He wrote several works on theol- 
ogy and history, and sat as Papal Theologian at the Council cf 
Florence. In 1446, he was compelled to accept the archbishopric 
of that city ; and in this dignity earned for himself the title of 
"the Father of the Poor," for all he had was at their disposal. St. 
Antoninus never refused an alms which was asked in the name 



220 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May II. 



of God. When he had no money, he gave his clothes, shoes, or 
furniture. One day, being sent by the Florentines to the Pope, as 
he approached Rome a beggar came up to him almost naked, and 
asked him for an alms for Christ's sake. Outdoing St. Martin, 
Antoninus gave him his whole cloak. When he entered the city, 
another was given him ; by whom he knew not. His household 
consisted of only six persons ; his palace contained no plate or 
costly furniture, and was often nearly destitute of the necessaries 
of life. His one mule was frequently sold for the relief of the 
poor, when it would be bought back for him by some wealthy 
citizen. He died embracing the crucifix, May 2d, 1459, often re- 
peating the words, " To serve God is to reign." 

Reflection. — "Alms-deeds," says St. Augustine, "comprise 
every kind of service rendered to our neighbor who needs such 
assistance. He who supports a lame man bestows an alms on 
him with his feet ; he who guides a blind man does him a charity 
with his eyes ; he who carries an invalid or an old man upon his 
shoulders imparts to him an alms of his strength. Hence none 
are so poor but they may bestow an alms on the wealthiest man in 
the world." 

MAY 11.— ST. MAMMERTUS, ARCHBISHOP. 

T. MAMMERTUS, Archbishop of« Vienne in Dauphine, was 
a prelate renowned for his sanctity, learning, and miracles. 
He instituted in his diocese the fasts and supplications called 
the Rogations, on the following occasions. Almighty God, to 
punish the sins of the people, visited them with wars and other 
public calamities, and awaked them from their spiritual lethargy 
by the terrors of earthquakes, fires, and ravenous wild beasts, 
which last were sometimes seen in the very market place of cities. 
These evils the impious ascribed to blind chance ; but religious 
and prudent persons considered them as tokens of the divine an- 
ger, which threatened their entire destruction. Amidst these 
scourges, St. Mammertus received a token of the divine mercy. A 
terrible fire happened in the city of Vienne, which baffled the 
efforts of men ; but by the prayers of the good bishop, the fire on 
a sudden went out. This miracle strongly affected the minds 
of the people. The holy prelate took this opportunity to make 
them sensible of the necessity and efficacy of devout prayer, and 
formed a pious design of instituting an annual fast and supplica- 




May 12.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



221 




tion of three days, in which all the faithful should join, with sin- 
cere compunction of heart, to appease the divine indignation by 
fasting, prayer, tears, and the confession of sins. The Church of 
Auvergne, of which St. Sidonius was bishop, adopted this pious 
institution before the year 475, and it became in a very short time 
an universal practice. St. Mammertus died about the year 477. 

Reflection. — " Know ye that the Lord will hear your prayers, 
if you continue with perseverance in fastings and prayers in the 
sight of the Lord." — Judith iv. 11. 

MAY 12.— ST. EPIPHANIUS, ARCHBISHOP. 

T. EPIPHANIUS was born about the year 310, in Palestine. 
In his youth he began the study of the Holy Scriptures, em- 
braced a monastic life, and went into Egypt to perfect him- 
self in the exercises of that state, in the deserts of that country. 
He returned to Palestine about the year 333, and built a monas- 
tery near the place of his birth. His labors in the exercise of vir- 
tue seemed to some to surpass his strength ; but his apology always 
was : " God gives not the kingdom of heaven but on condition 
that we labor ; and all we can do bears no proportion to such a 
crown." To his corporal austerities he added an indefatigable ap- 




222 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 12. 



plication to prayer and study. Most books then in vogue passed 
through his hands ; and he improved himself very much in learn- 
ing by his travels into many parts. 

Although the skilful director of many others, St. Epiphanius 
took the great St. Hilarion as his master in a spiritual life, and 
enjoyed the happiness of his direction and intimate acquaintance 
from the year 333 to 356. The reputation of his virtue made St. 
Epiphanius known to distant countries ; and, about the year 367, 
he was chosen Bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus. But he still wore 
the monastic habit, and continued to govern his monastery in 




Palestine, which he visited from time to time. He sometimes 
relaxed his austerities in favor of hospitality, preferring charity 
to abstinence. No one surpassed him in tenderness and charity 
to the poor. The veneration which all men had for his sanctity, 
exempted him from the persecution of the Arian emperor Va- 
lens. In 376, he undertook a journey to Antioch in the hope 
of converting Vitalis, the Apollinarist bishop ; and in 382, he 
accompanied St. Paulinus from that city to Rome, where they 
lodged at the house of St. Paula; our Saint in return enter- 
tained her afterward ten days in Cyprus in 385. The very name 
of an error in faith, or the shadow of danger of evil, affrighted 
him, and the Saint fell into some mistakes on certain occasions, 
which proceeded from zeal and simplicity. He was on his way 



May 13.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



223 



back to Salamis, after a short absence, when he died in 403, having 
been bishop thirty-six years. 

Reflection. — " In this is charity : not as though we had loved 
God, but because He hath first loved us." 

MAY 13.— ST. JOHN THE SILENT. 

OHN was born of a noble family at Nicopolis, in Armenia, 
in the year 454 ; but he derived from the virtue of his 
parents a much more illustrious nobility than that of their 
pedigree. After their death, he built at Nicopolis a church in 




honor of the Blessed Virgin, as also a monastery, in which, with 
ten fervent companions, he shut himself up when only eighteen 
years of age, with a view of making the salvation and most per- 
fect sanctification of his soul his only and earnest pursuit. Not 
only to shun the danger of sin by the tongue, but also out of sin- 
cere humility and contempt of himself, and the love of interior 
recollection and prayer, he very seldom spoke ; and when obliged 
to, it was always in very few words, and with great discretion. 
To his extreme affliction, when he was only twenty-eight years 
old, the Archbishop of Sebaste obliged him to quit his retreat, and 
ordained him Bishop of Colonian in Armenia in 482. In this dig- 
nity John preserved always the same spirit, and, as much as was 
compatible with the duties of his charge, continued his monas- 




224 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 14. 



tic austerities and exercises. Whilst he was watching one night 
in prayer, he saw before him a bright cross formed in the air, 
and heard a voice which said to him, " If thou desirest to be 
saved, follow this light." It seemed to move before him, and at 
length point out to the monastery of St. Sabas. Being satisfied what 
the sacrifice was which God required at his hands, he found means 
to abdicate the episcopal charge, and retired to the neighboring 
monastery of St. Sabas, which at that time contained one hundred 
and fifty fervent monks. St. John was then thirty-eight years old. 
After living there unknown for some years, fetching water, car- 
rying stones, and doing other menial work, St. Sabas, judging 
him worthy to be promoted to the priesthood, presented him to 
the Patriarch Elias. St. John took the patriarch aside, and. hav- 
ing obtained from him a promise of secrecy, said, " Father, I have 
been ordained bishop ; but on account of the multitude of my 
sins have fled, and am come into this desert to wait the visit of 
the Lord." The patriarch was startled, but God revealed to 
St. Sabas the state of the affair, whereupon, calling for John, he 
complained to him of his unkindness in concealing the matter 
from him. Finding himself discovered, John wished to quit the 
monastery, nor could St. Sabas prevail on him to stay, but on a 
promise never to divulge the secret. In the year 503, St. John 
withdrew into a neighboring wilderness, but in 510 went back to 
the monastery, and confined himself for forty years to his cell. 
St. John, by his example and counsels, conducted many fervent 
souls to God, and continued to emulate, as much as this mortal 
state will allow, the glorious employment of the heavenly spirits 
in an uninterrupted exercise of love and praise, till he passed to 
their blessed company, soon after the year 558; having lived 
seventy-six years in the desert, which had only been interrupted 
by the nine years of his episcopal dignity. 

Reflection. — A love of Christian silence is a proof that a soul 
makes it her chiefest delight to be occupied on God, and finds no 
comfort like that of conversing with Him. This is the paradise 
of all devout souls. 

MAY 14. -ST. PACHOMIUS, ABBOT. 

tN the beginning of the fourth century, great levies of troops 
were made throughout Egypt for the service of the Roman 
emperor. Among the recruits was Pachomius, a young 
heathen, then in his twenty-first year. On his way down the Nile, 



May 14.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



225 



he passed a village, whose inhabitants gave him food and money. 
Marvelling at this kindness, Pachomius was told they were Chris- 
tians, and hoped for a reward in the life to come. He then prayed 
God to show him the truth, and promised to devote his life to 
His service. On being discharged, he returned to a Christian 
village in Egypt, where he was instructed and baptized. Instead 
of going home, he sought Palemon, an aged solitary, to learn from 
him a perfect life, and with great joy embraced the most severe 
austerities. Their food was bread and water, once a dav in sum- 
mer, and once in two days in winter ; sometimes they added herbs.. 




but mixed ashes with them. They only slept one hour each nighty 
and this short repose Pachomius took sitting upright without 
support. Three times God revealed to him that he was to found 
a religious order at Tabenna ; and an angel gave him a rule of 
life. Trusting in God, he built a monastery, although he had no 
disciples ; but vast multitudes soon flocked to him, and he trained 
them in perfect detachment from creatures and from self. One 
day a monk, by dint of great exertions, contrived to make two 
mats instead of the one which was the usual daily task, and set 
them both out in front of his cell, that Pachomius might see how 
diligent he had been. But the Saint, perceiving the vainglory 
which had prompted the act, said, " This brother has taken a great 
deal of pains from morning till night to give his work to the devil." 
Then, to cure him of his delusion, Pachomius imposed on him as 



226 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 15. 



a penance to keep his cell for five months and to taste no food but 
ibread and water. His visions and miracles were innumerable, and 
lie read all hearts. His holy death occurred in 348. 

Reflection. — " To live in great simplicity," said St. Pacho- 
mius, "and in a wise ignorance, is exceeding wise." 

MAY 15.— SS. PETER AND DIONYSIA. 

N the Decian persecution, the blood of the Christians flowed at 
Lampsacus, a city of Asia Minor. St. Peter was the first who 
was led before the proconsul and condemned to die for the 
name of Christ. Young though he was, he went joyfully to his 




torments. He was bound to a wheel by iron chains, and his bones 
were broken, but he raised his eyes to heaven with a smiling 
countenance and said, " I give Thee thanks, O Lord Jesus Christ, 
because Thou hast given me patience, and made me victorious 
over the tyrant." The proconsul saw how little suffering availed, 
and ordered the martyr to be beheaded. But a little later, in the 
same city, the virgin Dionysia showed a like eagerness to suffer. 
St. Dionysia gained the crown which an apostate lost, and his his- 
tory may teach us that those who lose Christ rather than suffer 
with Him, lose all. With the strength that was left he cried out, 
I never was a Christian. I sacrifice to the gods." Therefore he 




MAY l6.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 22/ 

was taken down, and he offered sacrifice. But he was possessed 
by the devil, whom he had chosen for his master. He fell to the 
earth in a fit, bit out his tongue, and so expired. He escaped a 
little pain, and instead he went to the endless torments of hell, 
and forfeited eternal rest. "O wretched man!" Dionysia cried,. 
" why have you feared a little suffering and chosen eternal pain in- 
stead ?" She was seized and led away to horrible outrage, but her 
angel guardian appeared by her side and protected the spouse of 
Christ. Escaping from prison, she still burned with the desire to 
be dissolved and to be with Christ. She threw herself upon the 
bodies of the martyrs, saying, " I would fain die with you on earth, 
that I may live with you in heaven." And Christ, who is the 
crown of virgins and the strength of martyrs, gave her the desire 
of her heart. 

Reflection. — The martyrs were even like us, with natures 
which shrank from suffering. They were patient under it because 
they looked to the eternal recompense, and endured as seeing Him 
who is invisible. 



MAY 16. — ST. JOHN NEPOMUCEN. 

T. JOHN was born, in answer to prayer, a.d. 1330, of poor 
parents, at Nepomuc in Bohemia. In gratitude they conse- 
crated him to God ; and his holy life as a priest led to his 
appointment as chaplain to the court of the Emperor Wenceslas. 
where he converted numbers by his preaching and example. 
Amongst those who sought his advice was the empress, who suf- 
fered much from her husband's unfounded jealousy. St. John, 
taught her to bear her cross with joy; but her piety only incensed 
the emperor, and he tried to extort her confessions from the Saint. 
He threw St. John into a dungeon, but gained nothing ; then, in- 
viting him to his palace, he promised him riches if he would 
yield, and threatened death if he refused. The Saint was silent. 
He was racked and burnt with torches ; but no words, save Jesus 
and Mary, fell from his lips. At last set free, he spent his time in 
preaching, and preparing for the death he knew to be at hand. 
On Ascension-eve, May 16th, Wenceslas, after a final and fruitless 
attempt to move his constancy, ordered him to be cast into the 
river, and that night the martyr's hands and feet were bound, and 
he was thrown from the bridge of Prague. As he died, a heavenly 
light shining on the water discovered the body, which was buried 




228 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 17. 




with the honors due to a Saint. A few years later, Wenceslas was 
deposed by his own subjects, and died an impenitent and miser- 
able death. In 1618, the Calvinist and Hussite soldiers of the 
Protestant Elector Frederick tried repeatedly to demolish the 
shrine of St. John at Prague. Each attempt was miraculously 
frustrated ; and once the persons engaged in the sacrilege, among 
whom was an Englishman, were killed on the spot. In 1620, 
the imperial troops recovered the town by a victory which was 
ascribed to the Saint's intercession, as he was seen on the eve of 
the battle, radiant with glory, guarding the cathedral. When his 
shrine was opened, three hundred and thirty years after his de- 
cease, the flesh had disappeared, and one member alone remained 
incorrupt, the tongue ; thus still, in silence, giving glory to God. 

Reflection. — St. John, who by his invincible sacramental 
silence won his crown, teaches us to prefer torture and death to 
offending the Creator with our tongue. How many times each 
•day do we forfeit grace and strength by sins of speech ! 

MAY 17.— ST. PASCHAL BAYLON. 

j|^ROM a child Paschal seems to have been marked out for the 
service of God ; and amidst his daily labors he found time 
to instruct and evangelize the rude herdsmen who kept 
their flocks on the hills of Aragon. At the age of twenty-four he 



May 17.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



229 



entered the Franciscan Order, in which, however, he remained, 
from humility, a simple lay-brother, and occupied himself, by pre- 
ference, with the roughest and most servile tasks. He was dis- 
tinguished by an ardent love and devotion to the Blessed Sacra- 
ment. He would spend hours on his knees before the tabernacle 
— often he was raised from the ground in the fervor of his 
prayer — and there, from the very and eternal Truth, he drew such 
stores of wisdom that, unlettered as he was, he was counted by all 
a master in theology and spiritual science. Shortly after his pro- 
fession, he was called to Paris on business connected with his 




Order. The journey was full of peril, owing to the hostility of 
the Huguenots, who were numerous at the time in the south of 
France ; and on four separate occasions Paschal was in imminent 
danger of death at the hands of the heretics. But it was not God's 
will that His servant should obtain the crown of martyrdom 
which, though judging himself all unworthy of it, he so earnestly 
desired, and he returned in safety to his convent, where he died 
in the odor of sanctity, May 15th, 1592. As Paschal was watch- 
ing his sheep on the mountain-side, he heard the consecration bell 
ring out from a church in the valley below, where the villagers 
were assembled for Mass. The Saint fell on his knees, when sud- 
denly there stood before him an angel of God, bearing in his 
hands the Sacred Host, and offering it for his adoration. Learn 



230 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May i 8. 



from this how pleasing to Jesus Christ are those who honor Him 
in this great mystery of His love; and how to them especially this 
promise is fulfilled: "I will not leave you orphans; I will come 
unto you." John xiv. 18. 

Reflection. — St. Paschal teaches us, never to suffer a day to 
pass without visiting Jesus in the narrow chamber where He, 
whom the heaven itself cannot contain, abides day and night for 
our sake. 

MAY 18.— ST. VENANTIUS, MARTYR. 

fT. VENANTIUS was born at Camerino, in Italy, and at the 
age of fifteen was seized as a Christian and carried before 
a judge. As it was found impossible to shake his constancy 
either by threats or promises, he was condemned to be scourged, 
but was miraculously saved by an angel. He was then burnt with 
torches and hung over a low fire that he might be suffocated by 
the smoke. The judge's secretary, admiring the steadfastness of 




the Saint, and seeing an angel, robed in white, who trampled out 
the fire, and again set free the youthful martyr, proclaimed his 
faith in Christ, was baptized with his whole family, and shortly 
after won the martyr's crown himself. Venantius was then car- 
ried before the governor, who, unable to make him renounce his 



May 19.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 23 I 

faith, cast him into prison with an apostate who vainly strove to 
tempt him. The governor then ordered his teeth and jaws to be 
broken, and had him thrown into a furnace, from which the angel 
once more delivered him. The Saint was again led before the 
judge who, at sight of him, fell headlong from his seat and ex- 
pired, crying, " The God of Venantius is the true God ; let us 
destroy our idols." This circumstance being told to the governor, 
he ordered Venantius to be thrown to the lions ; but these brutes, 
forgetting their natural ferocity, crouched at the feet of the Saint. 
Then, by order of the tyrant, the young martyr was dragged 
through a heap of brambles and thorns, but again God manifested 
the glory of his servant ; the soldiers suffering from thirst, the 
Saint knelt on a rock and signed it with a cross, when immediately 
a jet of clear, cool water spurted up from the spot. This miracle 
converted many of those who beheld it, whereupon the governor 
had Venantius and his converts beheaded together in the year 250. 
The bodies of these martyrs are kept in the church at Camerino, 
which bears the Saint's name. 

Reflection. — Love of suffering marks the most perfect degree 
in the love of God. Our Lord himself was consumed with the 
desire to suffer, because He burnt with the love of God. We must 
begin with patience and detachment. At last we shall learn to 
love the sufferings which conform us to the Passion of our Re- 
deemer. 

MAY 19.— ST. PETER CELESTINE. 

S a child, Peter had visions of our Blessed Lady, and of the 
angels and saints. They encouraged him in his prayer, 
and chided him when he fell into any fault. His mother, 
though only a poor widow, put him to school, feeling sure that he 
would one day be a saint. At the age of twenty, he left his home 
in Apulia to live in a mountain solitude. Here he passed three 
years, assaulted by the evil spirits and beset with temptations of 
the flesh, but consoled by angels' visits. After this, his seclusion 
was invaded by disciples, ivho refused to be sent away ; and the 
rule of life which he gave them formed the foundation of the 
Celestine Order. Angels assisted in the church w T hich Peter built ; 
unseen bells rang peals of surpassing sweetness, and heavenly 
music filled the sanctuary, when he offered the Holy Sacrifice. 
Suddenly he found himself torn from his loved solitude by his 
election to the Papal throne. Resistance was of no avail. He 
took the name of Celestine, to remind him of the heaven he was 




232 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 20. 



leaving and for which he sighed, and was consecrated at Aquila. 
After a reign of four months, Peter summoned the cardinals to 
his presence, and solemnly resigned his trust. St. Peter built 
himself a boarded cell in his palace, and there continued his 
hermit's life ; and when, lest his simplicity might be taken advan- 
tage of to distract the peace of the Church, he was put under 
guard, he said, " I desired nothing but a cell, and a cell they have 
given me." There he enjoyed his former loving intimacy with the 
saints and angels, and sang the Divine praises almost continually. 
At length, on Whit-Sunday, he told his guards he should die 




within the week, and immediately fell ill. He received the last 
Sacraments ; and the following Saturday, as he finished the con- 
cluding verse of Lauds, " Let every spirit bless the Lord !" he 
closed his eyes to this world and opened them to the vision of God. 

Reflection. — " Whoso," says the Imitation of Christ, " with- 
draweth himself from acquaintances and friends, to him will God 
draw near with His holy angels." 

MAY 20.— ST. BERNARDINE OF SIENA. 

tN 1408, St. Vincent Ferrer once suddenly interrupted his ser- 
mon to declare that there was among his hearers a young 
Franciscan who would be one day a greater preacher than 
himself, and would be set before him in honor by the Church. 



May 20.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



2 33 



This unknown friar was Bernardine. Of noble birth, he had spent 
his youth in works of mercy, and had then entered religion. 
Owing to a defective utterance, his success as a preacher at first 
seemed doubtful, but, by the prayers of our Lady, this obstacle 
was miraculously removed, and Bernardine began an apostolate 
which lasted thirty-eight years. By his burning words and by 
the power of the Holy Name of Jesus, which he displayed on a 
tablet at the end of his sermons, he obtained miraculous conver- 
sions, and reformed the greater part of Italy. But this success 
had to be exalted by the Cross. The Saint was denounced as a 




heretic and his devotion as idolatrous. After many trials he lived 
to see his innocence proved, and a lasting memorial of his work 
established in the Church. The Feast of the Holy Name com- 
memorates at once his sufferings and his triumph. He died on 
Ascension-eve, 1444, while his brethren were chanting the anti- 
phon, " Father, I have manifested Thy Name to men." St. Ber- 
nardine, when a youth, undertook the charge of a holy old 
woman, a relation of his, who had been left destitute. She was 
blind and bed-ridden, and during her long illness could only utter 
the Holy Name. The Saint watched over her till she died, and 
thus learned the devotion of his life. 

Reflection. — Let us learn from the life of St. Bernardine the 
power of the Holy Name in life and death. 



234 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 21. 



MAY 21.— ST. HOSPITIUS, RECLUSE. 

\<5^T. HOSPITIUS shut himself up in the ruins of an old tower 
VjcS) near Villafranca, one league from Nice, in Provence. He 
girded himself with a heavy iron chain and lived on bread 
and dates only. During Lent he redoubled his austerities, and, in 
order to conform his life more closely to that of the anchorites of 
Egypt, ate nothing but roots. For his great virtues, Heaven hon- 
ored him with the gifts of prophecy and of miracles. He foretold 
the ravages which the Lombards would make in Gaul. These 
barbarians, having come to the tower in which Hospitius lived, 




and seeing the chain with which he was bound, mistook him for 
some criminal who was there imprisoned. On questioning the 
Saint, he acknowledged that he was a great sinner and unworthy 
to live. Whereupon one of the soldiers lifted his sword to strike 
him ; but God did not desert His faithful servant : the soldier's 
arm stiffened and became numb, and it was not until Hospitius 
made the sign of the cross over it that the man recovered the use 
of it. The soldier embraced Christianity, renounced the world, 
and passed the rest of his days in serving God. When our Saint 
felt that his last hour was nearing, he took off his chain and knelt 
in prayer for a long time. Then, stretching himself on a little 



May 22.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



235 



bank of earth, he calmly gave up his soul to God on the 21st of 
May, 681. 

Reflection. — If we do not love penitence for its own sake, let 
us love it on account of our sins; for we should " work out our 
salvation in fear and trembling." 

MAY 22.— ST. YVO, CONFESSOR. 

T. YVO HELORI, descended from a noble and virtuous 
vS) family near Treguier in Brittany, was born in 1253. At 
fourteen years of age, he went to Paris, and afterwards to 
Orleans, to pursue his studies. His mother was wont frequently 
to say to him that he ought so to live as became a saint, to which 
his answer always was, that he hoped to be one. This resolution 
took deep root in his soul, and was a continual spur to virtue, and 
a check against the least shadow of any dangerous course. His 
time was chiefly divided between study and prayer; for his re- 
creation he visited the hospitals, where he attended the sick with 




great charity, and comforted them under the severe trials of their 
suffering condition. He made a private vow of perpetual chas- 
tity ; but, this not being known, many honorable matches were 
proposed to him, which he modestly rejected as incompatible with 



236 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 22. 



his studious life. He long deliberated whether to embrace a 
religious or a clerical state ; but the desire of serving his neigh- 
bor determined him at length in favor of the latter. He wished, 
out of humility, to remain in the lesser orders ; but his bishop 
compelled him to receive the priesthood, a step which cost him 
many tears, though he had qualified himself for that sacred 
dignity by the most perfect purity of mind and body, and by a 
long and fervent preparation. He was appointed ecclesiastical 
judge for the diocese of Rennes. St. Yvo protected the orphans 
and widows, defended the poor, and administered justice to all 
with an impartiality, application, and tenderness, which gained 
him the good-will even of those who lost their causes. He was 
surnamed the advocate and lawyer of the poor. He built a house 
near his own for a hospital of the poor and sick ; he washed their 
feet, cleansed their ulcers, served them at table, and ate himself only 
the scraps which they had left. He distributed his corn, or the 
price for which he sold it, among the poor immediately after the 
harvest. When a certain person endeavored to persuade him to 
keep it some months that he might sell it at a better price, he 
answered, " I know not whether I shall be then alive to give it." 
Another time the same person said to him, " I have gained a fifth 
by keeping my corn." " But I," replied the Saint, " a hundred fold 
by giving it immediately away." During the Lent of 1303, he 
felt his strength failing him ; yet far from abating any thing in 
his austerities, he thought himself obliged to redouble his fer- 
vor in proportion as he advanced nearer to eternity. On the eve 
of the Ascension, he preached to his people, said Mass, being up- 
held by two persons, and gave advice to all who addressed them- 
selves to him. After this, he lay down on his bed, which was a 
hurdle of twigs plaited together, and received the last Sacraments. 
From that moment he entertained himself with God alone till his 
soul went to possess Him in his glory. His death happened on 
the 19th of May, 1303, in the fiftieth year of his age. 

Reflection. — St. Yvo was a Saint amidst the dangers of the 
world ; but he preserved his virtue untainted only by arming him- 
self carefully against them, by conversing assiduously with God 
in prayer and holy meditation, and by most watchfully shunning 
the snares of bad company. Without this precaution, all the 
instructions of parents, and all other means of virtue, are in- 
effectual ; and the soul is sure to split against this rock, which does 
not steer wide of it. 



May 23.]^ 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



237 



MAY 23.— ST. JULIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR. 

fT. JULIA was a noble virgin at Carthage, who, when the city 
was taken by Genseric in 439, was sold for a slave to a pagan 
merchant of Syria, named Eusebius. Under the most mor- 
tifying employments of her station, by cheerfulness and patience 
she found a happiness and comfort which the world could not have 
afforded. All the time she was not employed in her master's busi- 
ness was devoted to prayer and reading books of piety. Her mas- 
ter, who was charmed with her fidelity and other virtues, thought 
proper to carry her with him on one of his voyages to Gaul. Hav- 




ing reached the northern part of Corsica, he cast anchor, and went 
on shore to join the pagans of the place in an idolatrous festival. 
Julia was left at some distance because she would not be defiled 
by the superstitious ceremonies which she openly reviled. Felix, 
the governor of the island, who was a bigoted pagan, asked who 
this woman was who dared to insult the gods. Eusebius informed 
him that she was a Christian, and that all his authority over her 
was too weak to prevail with her to renounce her religion ; but 
that he found her so diligent and faithful he could not part with 
her. The governor offered him four of his best female slaves in 
exchange for her. But the merchant replied, " No ; all you are 
worth will not purchase her; for I would freely lose the most 



2 3 8 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 24. 



valuable thing I have in the world rather than be deprived of her." 
However the governor, while Eusebius was drunk and asleep, took 
upon him to compel her to sacrifice to his gods. He offered to 
procure her liberty if she would comply. The Saint made answer 
that she was as free as she desired to be as long as she was allowed 
to serve Jesus Christ. Felix, thinking himself derided by her un- 
daunted and resolute air, in a transport of rage caused her to be 
struck on the face, and the t hair of her head to be torn off; and 
lastly, ordered her to be hanged on a cross till she expired. Cer- 
tain monks of the Isle of Gorgon carried off her body ; but in 763 
Desiderius, King of Lombardy, removed her relics to Brescia, 
where her memory is celebrated with great devotion. 

Reflection. — St. Julia, whether free or a slave, whether in 
prosperity or in adversity, was equally fervent and devout. She 
adored all the sweet designs of Providence ; and far from com- 
plaining, she never ceased to praise and thank God under all His 
holy appointments, making them always the means of her virtue 
and sanctification. God, by an admirable chain of events, raised 
her by her fidelity to the honor of the saints, and to the dignity of 
a virgin and martyr. 

\/ 

MAY 24.— SS. DONATIAN AND ROGATIAN, MARTYRS. 

tHERE lived at Nantes an illustrious young nobleman named 
Donatian, who, having received the holy sacrament of regen- 
eration, led a most edifying life, and strove with much zeal 
to convert others to faith in Christ. His elder brother, Ro- 
gatian, was not able to resist the moving example of his piety 
and the force of his discourses, and desired to be baptized. 
But the bishop having withdrawn and concealed himself for fear 
of the persecution, he was not able to receive that sacrament, but 
was shortly after baptized in his blood; for he declared himself a 
Christian at a time when to embrace that sacred profession was to 
become a candidate for martyrdom. Donatian was impeached for 
professing himself a Christian, and for having withdrawn others, 
particularly his brother, from the worship of the gods. Donatian 
was therefore apprehended, and having boldly confessed Christ 
before the governor, was cast into prison and loaded with irons. 
Rogatian was also brought before the prefect, who endeavored first 
to gain him by flattering speeches, but finding him inflexible, sent 
him to prison with his brother. Rogatian grieved that he had not 



May 25.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



239 




been able to receive the sacrament of baptism, and prayed that the 
kiss of peace which his brother gave him might supply it. Dona- 
tian also prayed for him that his faith might procure for him the 
effect of baptism, and the effusion of his blood that of the sacra- 
ment of confirmation. They passed that night together in fervent 
prayer. They were the next day called for again by the prefect, 
to whom they declared that they were ready to suffer for the name 
of Christ whatever torments were prepared for them. By the order 
of the inhuman judge they were first stretched on the rack, after- 
wards their heads were pierced with lances, and lastly cut off, 
about the year 287. 

Reflection. — Three things are pleasing unto God and man, 
concord among brethren, the love of parents, and the union of 
man and wife. 




MAY 25.— ST. GREGORY VII. 

p REGORY VII., by name Hildebrand, was born in Tuscany,, 
about the year 1013. He was educated in Rome. From 
thence he went to France, and became a monk at Cluny. 
Afterwards he returned to Rome, and for many years filled high 
trusts of the Holy See. Three great evils then afflicted the Church : 
simony, concubinage, and the custom of receiving investiture from 
lay hands. Against these three corruptions Gregory never ceased 



240 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 25. 



to contend. As legate of Victor II. he held a Council at Lyons, 
where simony was condemned. He was elected Pope in 1073, and 
at once called upon the pastors of the Catholic world to lay down 
their lives rather than betray the laws of God to the will of princes. 
Rome was in rebellion through the ambition of the Cenci. Gre- 
gory excommunicated them. They laid hands on him at Christ- 
mas during the midnight Mass, wounded him, and cast him into 
prison. The following day he was rescued by the people. Next 
arose his conflict with Henry IV., Emperor of Germany. This 
monarch, after openly relapsing into simony, pretended to depose 




the Pope. Gregory excommunicated the emperor. His subjects 
turned against him, and at last he sought absolution of Gregory at 
Canossa. But he did not persevere. Fie set up an antipope, and 
besieged Gregory in the castle of St. Angelo. The aged pontiff 
was obliged to flee, and on May 25th, 1085, about the seventy- 
second year of his life, and the twelfth year of his pontificate, Gre- 
gory entered into his rest. His last words were full of a divine 
wisdom and patience. As he was dying, he said, " I have loved 
justice and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile." His faithful 
attendant answered, " Vicar of Christ, an exile thou canst never be, 
for to thee God has given the Gentiles for an inheritance, and the 
uttermost ends of the earth for thy possession." 



May 26.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



241 



Reflection. — Eight hundred years are passed since St. Gre- 
gory died, and we see the same conflict renewed before our eyes. 
Let us learn from him to suffer any persecution from the world or 
the State, rather than betray the rights of the Holy See. 

MAY 26. — ST. PHILIP NERI. 

&|rQHILIP was one of the noble line of Saints raised up by God 
Jfi in the sixteenth century to console and bless His Church. 

After a childhood of angelic beauty, the Holy Spirit drew 
him away from Florence, the place of his birth, showed him the 
world, that he might freely renounce it, led him to Rome, mod- 
elled him in mind and heart and will, and then, as by a second 
Pentecost, came down in visible form and filled his soul with light 
and peace and joy. He would have gone to India, but God re- 
served him for Rome. There he went on simply from day to day, 
drawing souls to Jesus, exercising them in mortification and char- 
ity, and binding them together by cheerful devotions ; thus, un- 
consciously to himself, under the hands of Mary, as he said, the 




Oratory grew up, and all Rome was pervaded and transformed 
by its spirit. His life was a continuous miracle, his habitual state 
an ecstasy. He read the hearts of men, foretold their future, 
knew their eternal destiny. His touch gave health of body ; his 



242 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 26. 



very look calmed souls in trouble and drove away temptations. 
He was gay, genial, and irresistibly winning ; neither insult nor 
wrong could dim the brightness of his joy. 

Philip lived in an atmosphere of sunshine and gladness which 
brightened all who came near him. " When I met him in the 
street," says one, "he would pat my cheek and say, ' Well, how is 
Don Pellegrino ? ' and leave me so full of joy that I could not tell 
which way I was going." Others said that when he playfully 
pulled their hair or their ears, their hearts would bound with joy. 
Marcio Altieri felt such overflowing gladness in his presence that 
he said Philip's room was a paradise on earth. Fabrizio de Mas- 
simi would go in sadness or perplexity and stand at Philip's door; 
he said it was enough to see him, to be near him. And long after 
his death, it was enough for many, when troubled, to go into his 
room, to find their hearts lightened and gladdened. He inspired 
a boundless confidence and love, and was the common refuge and 
consoler of all. A gentle jest would convey his rebukes and veil 
his miracles. The highest honors sought him out, but he put them 
from him. He died in his eightieth year, a.d. 1595, and bears the 
grand title of Apostle of Rome. 

Reflection. — Philip wished his children to serve God, like 
the first Christians, in gladness of heart. He said this was the 
true filial spirit ; this expands the soul, giving it liberty and per- 
fection in action, power over temptations, and fuller aid to perse- 
verance. 

ST. AUGUSTINE, APOSTLE OF ENGLAND. 

UGUSTINE was prior of the monastery of St. Andrew on 
the Ccelian, and was appointed by St. Gregory the Great 
chief of the missionaries whom he sent to England. 
St. Augustine and his companions, having heard on their jour- 
ney many reports of the barbarism and ferocity of the pagan Eng- 
lish, were afraid, and wished to turn back. But St. Gregory re- 
plied, " Go on, in God's name ! The greater your hardships, the 
greater your crown. May the grace of Almighty God protect 
you, and give me to see the fruit of your labor in the heavenly 
country ! If I cannot share your toil, I shall yet share the har- 
vest, for God knows that it is not good-will which is wanting." 
The band of missionaries went on in obedience. 

Landing at Ebbsfleet, between Sandwich and Ramsgate, they 
met King Ethelbert and his thanes under a great oak-tree at Min- 




May 27.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



243 



ster, and announced to him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Instant 
and complete success attended their preaching. On Whit Sunday, 
596, King Ethelbert was baptized, and his example was followed 
by the greater number of his nobles and people. By degrees the 
faith spread far and wide, and Augustine, as Papal Legate, set 
out on a visitation of Britain. He failed in his attempt to enlist 
the Britons of the west in the work of his apostolate, through 
their obstinate jealousy and pride ; but his success was triumphant 
from south to north. St. Augustine died after eight years of evan- 
gelical labors. The Anglo-Saxon Church, which he founded, is 
still famous for its learning, zeal, and devotion to the Holy See, 
while its calendar commemorates no less than 300 Saints, half of 
whom were of royal birth. 

Reflection. — The work of an apostle is the work of the right 
Hand of God. He often chooses weak instruments for His 
mightiest purposes. The most sure augury of lasting success in 
missionary labor is obedience to superiors and diffidence in self. 

MAY 27.— ST. MARY MAGDALEN OF PAZZI. 

v@T. MARY MAGDALEN of Pazzi, of an illustrious house in 



Florence, was born in the year 1566, and baptized by the 



name of Catherine. She received her first communion at 
ten years of age, and made a vow of virginity at twelve. She took 
great pleasure in carefully teaching the Christian doctrine to the 
ignorant. Her father, not knowing her vow, wished to give her 
in marriage, but she persuaded him to allow her to become a re- 
ligious. It was more difficult to obtain her mother's consent ; 
but at last she gained it, and she was professed, being then eigh- 
teen years of age, in the Carmelite monastery of Santa Maria 
degli Angeli in Florence, May 17th, 1584. She changed her name 
Catherine into that of Mary Magdalen on becoming a nun, and 
took as her motto, "To suffer or die;" and her life henceforth 
was a life of penance for sins not her own, and of love of our 
Lord, who tried her in ways fearful and strange. She was obe- 
dient, observant of the rule, humble and mortified, and had 
a great reverence for the religious life. She loved poverty and 
suffering, and hungered after Communion. The day of Commu- 
nion she called the day of love. The charity that burned in her 
heart led her in her youth to choose the house of the Carmelites, 
because the religious therein communicated every day. She re- 




244 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS 



[May 27. 




joiced to see others communicate, even when she was not allowed 
to do so herself ; and her love for her sisters grew when she saw 
them receive our Lord. 

God raised her to high states of prayer, and gave her rare 
gifts, enabling her to read the thoughts of her novices, and filling 
her with wisdom to direct them aright. She was twice chosen 
mistress of novices, and then made superioress, when God took 
her to Himself, May 25th, 1607. Her body is incorrupt. 

Reflection. — St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi was so filled with 
the love of God that her sisters in the monastery observed it in 
her love of themselves, and called her " the Mother of Charity," 
and " the Charity of the Monastery." 

VENERABLE BEDE. 

ENERABLE BEDE, the illustrious ornament of the Anglo- 
Saxon Church and the first English historian, was conse- 
crated to God at the age of seven, and intrusted to the care 
of St. Benedict Biscop at Wearmouth. He became a monk in 
the sister-house of Jarrow, and there trained no less than six hun- 
dred scholars, whom his piety, learning, and sweet disposition had 
gathered round him. To the toils of teaching and the exact ob- 
servance of his rule, he added long hours of private prayer, and 




May 28.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



245 



the study of every branch of science and literature then known. 
He was familiar with Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In the treatise 
which he compiled for his scholars, still extant, he threw together 
all that the world had then stored in history, chronology, physics,, 
music, philosophy, poetry, arithmetic, and medicine. In his Ec- 
clesiastical History, he has left us beautiful lives of Anglo-Saxon 
Saints and holy fathers, while his commentaries on the Holy 
Scriptures are still in use by the Church. It w r as to the study of 
the Divine Word that he devoted the whole energy of his soul, 
and at times his compunction w r as so overpowering that his voice 
would break with weeping, while the tears of his scholars min- 
gled with his own. He had little aid from others, and during his 
later years suffered from constant illness; yet he worked and 
prayed up to his last hour. 

The Saint was employed in translating the Gospel of St. John, 
from the Greek up to the hour of his death, which took place on 
Ascension-day, a.d. 735. "He spent that day joyfully," writes 
one of his scholars. And in the evening the boy who attended 
him said, " Dear master, there is yet one sentence unwritten.''" 
He answered, "Write it quickly." Presently the youth said, 
" Now it is written." He replied, " Good ! thou hast said the 
truth — consummatum est ; take my head into thy hands, for it is 
very pleasant to me to sit facing my old praying-place, and there 
to call upon my Father." And so on the floor of his cell he sang, 
" Glory be to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost;" and just as he 
said, " Holy Ghost," he breathed his last, and went to the realms 
above. 

Reflection. — " The more," says the Imitation of Christ, " a man 
is united within himself and interiorly simple, so much the more 
and deeper things doth he understand without labor ; for he 
receiveth the light of understanding from on high." 

MAY 28.— ST. GERMANUS, BISHOP. 

\@T. GERMANUS, the glory of the church of France in the 
V«3 sixth century, was born in the territory of Autun, about the 
year 469. In his youth he was conspicuous for his fervor. 
Being ordained priest, he was made abbot of St. Symphorian's ; 
he was favored at that time with the gifts of miracles and prophecy. 
It was his custom to watch the great part of the night in the church 
in prayer, whilst his monks slept. One night, in a dream, he 



246 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 28. 



thought a venerable old man presented him with the keys of the 
city of Paris, and said to him, that God committed to his care the 
inhabitants of that city, that he should save them from perishing. 
Four years after this divine admonition, in 554, happening to be 
at Paris when that see became vacant, on the demise of the bishop 
Eusebius, he was exalted to the episcopal chair, though he endea- 
vored by many tears to decline the charge. His promotion made 
no alteration in his mode of life. The same simplicity and fru- 
gality appeared in his dress, table, and furniture. His house was 
perpetually crowded with the poor and the afflicted, and he had 




always many beggars at his own table. God gave to his sermons 
a wonderful influence over the minds of all ranks of people ; so 
that the face of the whole city was in a very short time quite 
changed. King Childebert, who till then had been an ambitious, 
worldly prince, was entirely converted by the sweetness and the 
powerful discourses of the Saint, and founded many religious in- 
stitutions, and sent large sums of money to the good bishop, to be 
distributed among the indigent. In his old age St. Germanus lost 
nothing of that zeal and activity with which he had filled the great 
duties of his station in the vigor of his life ; nor did the weakness 
to which his corporal austerities had reduced him make him abate 
;any thing in the mortifications of his penitential life, in which he 
redoubled his fervor as he approached nearer to the end of his 



May 29.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



247 



course. By his zeal the remains of idolatry were extirpated in 
France. The Saint continued his labors for the conversion of sin- 
ners till he was called to receive the reward of them, on the 28th 
of May, 576, being eighty years old. 

Reflection. — " In the churches, bless ye God the Lord. From 
Thy temple, kings shall offer presents to Thee." 

MAY 29.— ST. CYRIL, MARTYR. 




T. CYRIL suffered while still a boy at Csesarea, in Cappado- 
1 cia, during the persecutions of the third century. He used 



to repeat the name of Christ at all times, and confessed that 
the mere utterance of this name moved him strangely. He was 
beaten and reviled by his heathen father. But he bore all this with 
joy, increasing in the strength of Christ, who dwelt wirhin him, and 




drawing many of his own age to the imitation of his heavenly life. 
When his father in his fury turned him out of doors, he said he 
had lost little, and would receive a great recompense instead. 

Soon after, he was brought before the magistrate on account of 
his faith. No threats could make him show a sign of fear, and the 
judge, pitying perhaps his tender years, offered him his freedom, 
assured him of his father's forgiveness, and besought him to re- 



248 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[May 30. 



turn to his home and inheritance. But the blessed youth replied, 
" I left my home gladly, for I have a greater and a better which is 
waiting for me." He was filled with the same heavenly desires to 
the end. He was taken to the fire as if for execution, and was 
then brought back and re-examined, but he only protested against 
the cruel delay. Led out to die, he hurried on the executioners, 
gazed unmoved at the flames which were kindled for him, and ex- 
pired, hastening, as he said, to his home. 

Reflection. — Ask our Lord to make all earthly joy insipid, 
and to fill you with the constant desire of heaven. This desire 
will make labor easy and suffering light. It will make you fer- 
vent and detached, and bring you even here a foretaste of that 
eternal joy and peace to which you are hastening. 



MAY 30.— ST. FELIX I., POPE AND MARTYR. 



T. FELIX was a Roman by birth, and succeeded St. Dionysius 
in the government of the Church in 269. Paul of Samosata, 
the proud bishop of Antioch, to the guilt of many enormous 
crimes, added that of heresy, teaching that Christ was no more than 




a mere man, in whom the Divine Word dwelt by its operation, 
and as in its temple, with many other gross errors concerning the 
capital mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation. Three councils 



May 31.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



249 



were held at Antioch to examine his cause, and in the third, as- 
sembled in 269, being clearly convicted of heresy, pride, and many 
scandalous crimes, he was excommunicated and deposed, and 
Domnus was substituted in his place. As Paul still kept posses- 
sion of the episcopal house, our Saint had recourse to the emperor 
Aurelian, who, though a pagan, gave an order that the house should 
belong to him to whom the bishops of Rome and Italy adjudged 
it. The persecution of Aurelian breaking out, St. Felix, fearless 
of danger, strengthened the weak, encouraged all, baptized the 
catechumens, and continued to exert himself in converting in- 
fidels to the faith. He himself obtained the glory of martyrdom. 
He governed the Church five years, and passed to a glorious eter- 
nity in 274. 

Reflection. — The example of our Saviour and of all His saints, 
ought to encourage us under all trials to suffer with patience and 
even with joy. We shall soon begin to feel that it is sweet to 
tread in the steps of a God-man, and shall find that if we coura- 
geously take up our crosses, He will make them light by sharing 
the burden with us. 

MAY 31.— ST. PETRONILLA, VIRGIN. 

MONG the disciples of the apostles in the primitive age of 
saints, this holy virgin shone as a bright star in the Church. 
She lived when Christians were more solicitous to live well 
than to write much : they knew how to die for Christ ; but did not 
compile long books in which vanity has often a greater share than 
charity. Hence no particular account of her actions has been 
handed down to us. But how eminent her sanctity was we 
may judge from the lustre by which it was distinguished among 
apostles, prophets, and martyrs. She is said to have been a daugh- 
ter of the apostle St. Peter ; that St. Peter was married before his 
vocation to the apostleship we learn from the gospel. St. Clement 
of Alexandria assures us that his wife attained to the glory of 
martyrdom ; at which Peter himself encouraged her, bidding her 
to remember our Lord. But it seems not certain whether St. Pe- 
tronilla was more than the spiritual daughter of that apostle. She 
flourished at Rome, and was buried on the way to Ardea, where in 
ancient times a cemetery and a church bore her name. 

Reflection. — With the saints the great end for which they 
lived was always present to their minds, and they thought every 




250 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June i. 




moment lost in which they did not make some advances toward 
eternal bliss. How will their example condemn at the last day 
the trifling fooleries, and the greatest part of the conversation and 
employments of the world, which aim at nothing but present 
amusements, and forget the only important aifair — the business of 
eternity. 

JUNE 1.— ST. JUSTIN, MARTYR. 

fT. JUSTIN was born of heathen parents at Neapolis in Sa- 
maria, about the year 103. He was well educated, and gave 
himself to the study of philosophy, but always with one ob- 
ject, that he might learn the knowledge of God. He sought this 
knowledge among the contending schools of philosophy, but al- 
ways in vain, till at last God himself appeased the thirst which he 
had created. One day, while Justin was walking by the seashore, 
meditating on the thought of God, an old man met him and ques- 
tioned him on the subject of his doubts ; and when he had made 
Justin confess that the philosophers taught nothing certain about 
God, he told him of the writings of the inspired prophets and of 
Jesus Christ whom they announced, and bade him seek light and 
understanding through prayer. The Scriptures and the constancy 
of the Christian martyrs led Justin from the darkness of human 
reason to the light of faith. In his zeal for the faith he travelled 



June i.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



2 5 I 



to Greece, Egypt, and Italy, gaining many to Christ. At Rome 
he sealed his testimony with his blood, surrounded by his disciples. 
"Do you think," the prefect said to Justin, " that by dying you 
will enter heaven and be rewarded by God?" "I do not think," 
was the Saint's answer; "I know." Then, as now, there were 
many religious opinions, but only one certainty — the certainty of 
the Catholic faith. This certainty should be the measure of our 
confidence and our zeal. 

Reflection. — We have received the gift of faith with little 
labor of our own. Let us learn how to value it from those who 
reached it after long search, and lived in the misery of a world 
which did not know God. Let us fear, as St. Justin did, the ac- 
count we shall have to render for the gift of God. 



ST. PAMPHILUS, MARTYR. 

-yXgJT. PAMPHILUS was of a rich and honorable family, and a 
CS) native of Berytus, in which city, at that time famous for its 
schools, he in his youth ran through the whole circle of the 
sciences, and was afterward honored with the first employments of 
the magistracy. After he began to know Christ, he could relish 
no other study but that of salvation, and renounced every thing 
else that he might apply himself wholly to the exercises of virtue, 
and the studies of the Holy Scriptures. This accomplished mas- 
ter in profane sciences, and this renowned magistrate, was not 
ashamed to become the humble scholar of Pierius, the successor 
of Origen, in the great catechetical school of Alexandria. He 
afterward made Caesarea, in Palestine, his residence, where, at his 
private expense, he collected a great library, which he bestowed 
on the church of that city. The Saint established there also a 
public school of sacred literature, and to his labors the Church 
was indebted for a most correct edition of the Holy Bible, which, 
with infinite care, he transcribed himself. But nothing was more 
remarkable in this Saint than his extraordinary humility. His 
paternal estate he at length distributed among the poor ; towards 
his slaves and domestics his behavior was always that of a brother 
or a tender father. He led a most austere life, sequestered from 
the world and its company, and was indefatigable in labor. Such 
a virtue was his apprenticeship to the grace of martyrdom. In 
the year 307, Urbanus, the cruel governor of Palestine, caused him 
to be apprehended, and commanded him to be most inhumanly tor- 



252 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June i. 



mented. But the iron hooks which tore the martyr's sides served 
only to cover the judge with confusion. After this, the Saint re- 
mained almost two years in prison. Urbanus, the governor, was 
himself beheaded by an order of the emperor Maximinus, but was 
succeeded by Firmilian, a man not less barbarous than bigoted and 
superstitious. After several butcheries, he caused St. Pamphilus 
to be brought before him, and passed sentence of death upon 
him. His flesh was torn off to the very bones, and his bowels ex- 
posed to view, and the torments were continued a long time with- 
out intermission, but he never once opened his mouth so much as 




to groan. He finished his martyrdom by a slow fire, and died in- 
voking Jesus, the Son of God. 



Reflection. — A cloud of witnesses, a noble army of martyrs, 
teach us by their constancy to suffer wrong with patience, and 
strenuously to resist evil. The daily trials we meet with from 
others or from ourselves, are always sent us by God, who some- 
times throws difficulties in our way on purpose to reward our 
conquest ; and sometimes, like a wise physician, restores us to our 
health by bitter potions. 



June 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



253 



JUNE 2.— SS. POTHINUS, BISHOP, SANCTUS, ATTALUS, 
BLANDINA, AND THE OTHER MARTYRS OF LYONS. 



FTER the miraculous victory obtained by the prayers of the 



Christians under Marcus Aurelius, in 174, the Church en- 



joyed a kind of peace, though it was often disturbed in par- 
ticular places by popular commotions, or by the superstitious fury 
of certain governors. This appears from the violent persecution 
which was raised three years after the aforesaid victory, at Vienne 
and Lyons, in 177 ; whilst St. Pothinus was bishop of Lyons, and 
St. Irenseus, who had been sent thither by St. Polycarp out of Asia, 



was a priest of that city. Many of the principal Christians were 
brought before the Roman governor. Among them was a slave, 
Blandina : and her mistress, also a Christian, feared that Blandina 
lacked strength to brave the torture. She was tormented a whole 
day through, but she bore it all with joy till the executioners gave 
up, confessing themselves outdone. Red-hot plates were held to 
the sides of Sanctus, a deacon of Vienne, till his body became one 
great sore, and he looked no longer like a man ; but in the midst 
of his tortures he was " bedewed and strengthened by the stream 
of heavenly water which flows from the side of Christ." Mean- 
time, many confessors were kept in prison, and with them were 
some who had been terrified into apostasy. Even the heathens 
marked the joy of martyrdom in the Christians who were decked 





254 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 3. 



for their eternal espousals, and the misery of the apostates. But 
the faithful confessors brought back those who had fallen, and 
the Church, " that Virgin Mother," rejoiced when she saw her 
children live again in Christ. Some died in prison, the rest were 
martyred one by one, St. Blandina last of all, after seeing her 
younger brother put to a cruel death, and encouraging him to 
victory. 

Reflection. — In early times, the Christians were called the 
children of joy. Let us seek the joy of the Holy Spirit to sweeten 
suffering, to temper earthly delight, till we enter into the joy of 
our Lord. 

\j 

JUNE 3.— ST. CLOTILDA, QUEEN. 

T. CLOTILDA was daughter of Chilperic, younger brother 
to Gondebald, the tyrannical king of Burgundy, who put 
him and his wife, and his other brothers, except one, to 
death, in order to usurp their dominions. Clotilda was brought 
up in her uncle's court, and, by a singular providence, was in- 




structed in the Catholic religion, though she was educated in the 
midst of Arians. Her wit, beauty, meekness, modesty, and piety 
made her the adoration of all the neighboring kingdoms, and 




June 4.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



255 



Clovis I., surnamed the Great, the victorious king of the Franks, 
demanded and obtained her in marriage. She honored her royal 
husband, studied to sweeten his warlike temper by Christian 
meekness, conformed herself to his humor in things that were 
indifferent, and, the better to gain his affections, made those things 
the subject of her discourse and praises in which she knew him to 
take the greatest delight. When she saw herself mistress of his 
heart, she did not defer the great work of endeavoring to win 
him to God, but the fear of giving offence to his people made 
him delay his conversion. His miraculous victory over the Ale- 
manni, and his entire conversion in 496, were at length the fruit 
of our Saint's prayers. Clotilda, having gained to God this great 
monarch, never ceased to excite him to glorious actions for the 
divine honor; among other religious foundations, he built in. 
Paris, at her request, about the year 511, the great church of SS.. 
Peter and Paul, now called St. Genevieve's. This great prince 
died on the 27th of November, in the year 511, at the age of forty- 
five, having reigned thirty years. His eldest son, Theodoric, 
reigned at Rheims over the eastern parts of France, Clodomir 
reigned at Orleans, Childebert at Paris, and Clotaire I. at Sois- 
sons. This division produced wars and mutual jealousies, till in 
560 the whole monarchy was reunited under Clotaire, the youngest 
of these brothers. The dissension in her family contributed more 
perfectly to wean Clotilda's heart from the world. She spent the 
remaining part of her life in exercises of prayer, almsdeeds, watch- 
ing, fasting, and penance, seeming totally to forget that she had 
been queen or that her sons sat on the throne. Eternity filled 
her heart and employed all her thoughts. She foretold her death 
thirty days before it happened. On the thirtieth day of her illness, 
she received the sacraments, made a public confession of her faith,, 
and departed to the Lord on the 3d of June, in 545. 

Reflection. — St. Peter defines the mission of the Christian 
woman : to win the heart of those who believe not the word. 



JUNE 4.— ST. FRANCIS CARACCIOLO. 

; jTg^RANCIS was born in the kingdom of Naples, of the princely 
family of Caracciolo. In childhood he shunned all amuse- 
ments, recited the Rosary regularly, and loved to visit the 
Blessed Sacrament and to distribute his food to the poor. An at- 
tack of leprosy taught him the vileness of the human body and the 



256 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 4. 



vanity of the world. Almost miraculously cured, he renounced 
his home to study for the priesthood at Naples, where he spent 
his leisure hours in the prisons or visiting the Blessed Sacrament 
in unfrequented churches. God called him, when only twenty- 
five, to found an Order of Clerks Regular, whose rule was that 
each day one father fasted on bread and water, another took the 
discipline, a third wore a hair-shirt, while they always watched by 
turns in perpetual adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. They 
took the usual vows, adding a fourth — not to desire dignities. To 
establish his Order, Francis undertook many journeys through 




Italy and Spain, on foot and without money, content with the 
shelter and crusts given him in charity. Being elected general, 
he redoubled his austerities, and devoted seven hours daily to medi- 
tation on the Passion, besides passing most of the night praying 
before the Blessed Sacrament. Francis was commonly called the 
Preacher of Divine Love. But it was before the Blessed Sacra- 
ment that his ardent devotion was most clearly perceptible. In 
presence of his Divine Lord, his face usually emitted brilliant 
rays of light ; and he often bathed the ground with his tears when 
lie prayed, according to his custom, prostrate on his face before the 
;tabernacle, and constantly repeating, as one devoured by internal 
fire. "The zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up." He died of 
fever, aged forty-four, on the eve of Corpus Christi, 1608, saying, 



June 5.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



257 



"Let us go, let us go to heaven!" When his body was opened 
after death, his heart was found as it were burnt up, and these 
words imprinted around it: " Zelus domus Tuoe comedit me" — 
"The zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up." 

Reflection. — It is for men, and not for angels, that our Blessed 
Lord resides upon the altar. Yet angels throng our churches to 
worship Him while men desert Him. Learn from St. Francis to 
avoid such ingratitude, and to spend, as he did, every possible 
moment before the Most Holy Sacrament. 



T. BONIFACE was born at Crediton, in Devonshire, Eng- 



S) land, in the year 680. Some missionaries staying at his fa- 



ther's house spoke to him of heavenly things, and inspired 
him with a wish to devote himself, as they did, to God. He en- 
tered the monastery of Exminster, and was there trained for his 
apostolic work. His first attempt to convert the pagans in Hol- 
land having failed, he went to Rome to obtain the Pope's blessing 
on his mission, and returned with authority to preach to the Ger- 
man tribes. It was a slow and dangerous task ; his own life was 
in constant peril, while his flock was often reduced to abject pov- 
erty by the wandering robber bands. Yet his courage never 
flagged. He began with Bavaria and Thuringia, next visited Fries- 
land, then passed on to Hesse and Saxony, everywhere destroy- 
ing the idol temples and raising churches on their site. He en- 
deavored, as far as possible, to make every object of idolatry 
contribute in some way to the glory of God ; on one occasion, 
having cut down an immense oak which was consecrated to Jupi- 
ter, he used the tree in building a church, which he dedicated to 
the Prince of the Apostles. He was now recalled to Rome, con- 
secrated Bishop by the Pope, and returned to extend and organize 
the rising German Church. With diligent care he reformed abuses 
among the existing clergy, and established religious houses 
throughout the land. At length, feeling his infirmities increase, 
and fearful of losing his martyr's crown, Boniface appointed a 
successor to his monastery, and set out to convert a fresh pagan 
tribe. While St. Boniface was waiting to administer Confirmation 
to some newly-baptized Christians, a troop of pagans arrived armed 
with swords and spears. His attendants would have opposed them, 
but the Saint said to his followers : " My children, cease your re- 



JUNE 5. — ST. BONIFACE, BISHOP, MARTYR. 




258 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 6. 




sistance; the long-expected day is come'at last. Scripture forbids 
us to resist evil. Let us put our hope in God : He will save our 
souls." Scarcely had he ceased speaking, when the barbarians fell 
upon him and slew him with all his attendants, to the number of 
fifty-two. 



Reflection. — St. Boniface teaches us how the love of Christ 
changes all things. It was for Christ's sake that he toiled for 
souls, preferring poverty to riches, labor to rest, suffering to 
pleasure, death to life, that by dying he might live with Christ. 



JUNE 6.— ST. NORBERT, BISHOP. 

F noble rank and rare talents, Norbert passed a most pious 
youth, and entered the ecclesiastical state. By a strange 
contradiction, his conduct now became a scandal to his 
sacred calling, and at the court of the emperor, Henry IV., he led, 
like many clerics of that age, a life of dissipation and luxury. 
One day, when he was thirty years of age, he was thrown half 
dead from his horse, and on recovering his senses, resolved upon 
a new life. After a severe and searching preparation, he was 
ordained priest, and began to expose the abuses of his Order. 
Silenced at first by a local council, he obtained the Pope's sanction 
and preached penance to listening crowds in France and the 



June 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



259 



Netherlands. In the wild vale of Premontre he gave to some 
trained disciples the rule of St. Austin, and a white habit to denote 
the angelic purity proper to the priesthood. The canons regular, 
or Premonstratensians , as they were called, were to unite the active 
work of the country clergy with the obligations of the monastic 
life. Their fervor renewed the spirit of the priesthood, quickened 
the faith of the people, and drove out heres}-. A vile heretic, 
named Tankelin, appeared at Antwerp, in the time of St. Norbert, 
and denied the reality of the priesthood, and especially blasphemed 
the Blessed Eucharist. The Saint was sent for to drive out the pest. 




By his burning words, he exposed the impostor and rekindled the 
faith in the Blessed Sacrament. Many of the apostates had proved 
their contempt for the Blessed Sacrament by burying it in filthy 
places. Norbert bade them search for the Sacred Hosts. They 
found them entire and uninjured, and the Saint bore them back in 
triumph to the tabernacle. Hence he is generally painted with 
the monstrance in his hand. In 11 26, Norbert found himself ap- 
pointed Bishop of Magdeburg; and there, at the risk of his life, 
he zealously carried on his work of reform, and died, worn out 
with toil, at the age of fifty-three. 

Reflection. — Reparation for the injuries offered to the Blessed 
Sacrament was the aim of St. Norbert's great work of reform — 



26o 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 7. 



in himself, in the clergy, and in the faithful. How much does our 
present worship repair for our own past irreverences, and for the 
outrages offered by others to the Blessed Eucharist ? 

JUNE 7.— ST. ROBERT OF NEWMINSTER. 

fN 1 132, Robert was a monk at Whitby, England, when news 
arrived that thirteen religious had been violently expelled 
from the Abbey of St. Mary, in York, for having proposed to 
restore the strict Benedictine rule. He at once set out to join 
them, and found them on the banks of the Skeld, near Ripon, 
living in the midst of winter in a hut made of hurdles and roofed 
with turf. In the spring, they affiliated themselves to St. Ber- 
nard's reform at Clairvaux, and for two years struggled on in 
extreme poverty. At length the fame of their sanctity brought 
another novice, Hugh, Dean of York, who endowed the community 
with all his wealth, and thus laid the foundation of Fountains 
Abbey. In 1137, Raynulph, Baron of Morpeth, was so edified by 
the example of the monks at Fountains that he built them a mon- 
astery in Northumberland, called Newminster, of which St. Robert 
became abbot. The holiness of his life, even more than his words, 
guided his brethren to perfection, and within the next ten years 
three new communities went forth from this one house to become 
centres of holiness in other parts. The abstinence of St. Robert 
in refectory alone sufficed to maintain the mortified spirit of the 
community. One Easter Day, his stomach, weakened by the fast 
of Lent, could take no food, and he at last consented to try to eat 
some bread sweetened with honey. Before it was brought, he felt 
this relaxation would be a dangerous example for his subjects, 
and sent the food untouched to the poor at the gate. The plate 
was received by a young man of shining countenance, who straight- 
way disappeared. At the next meal the plate descended empty, 
and by itself, to the abbot's place in the refectory, proving that 
what the Saint sacrificed for his brethren had been accepted by 
Christ. At the moment of Robert's death, in 1159, St. Godric, the 
hermit of Finchale, saw his soul, like a globe of fire, borne up by 
the angels in a pathway of light; and as the gates of heaven 
opened before them, a voice repeated twice, " Enter now, my 
friends." 

Reflection. — Reason and authority prove that virtue ought to 
be practised. But facts alone prove that it is practised ; and this 



June 7.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



26l 



is why examples have more power to move our souls, and why 
our individual actions are of such fearful importance for others as 
well as for ourselves. 

ST. CLAUDE, ARCHBISHOP. 

HE province of Eastern Burgundy received great lustre from 
this glorious Saint. He was born at Salins, about the year 
603, and was both the model and the oracle of the clergy of 
Besancon, when, upon the death of Archbishop Gervaise, about 
the year 683, he was chosen to be his successor. Fearing the ob- 




ligations of that charge, he fled and hid himself, but was discov- 
ered and compelled to take it upon him. During seven years, he 
acquitted himself of the pastoral functions with the zeal and vigi- 
lance of an apostle ; but finding then an opportunity of resigning 
his see, which, out of humility and love of solitude, he had always 
sought, he retired to the great monastery of St. Oyend, and there 
took the monastic habit, in 690. Violence was used to oblige him 
soon after to accept the abbatial dignity. Such was the sanctity 
of his life, and his zeal in conducting his monks in the paths of 
evangelical perfection, that he deserved to be compared to the 
Antonines and Pacomiuses, and his monastery to those of ancient 
Egypt. Manual labor, silence, prayer, reading of pious books, 




262 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 8. 



especially the Holy Bible, fasting, watching, humility, obedience, 
poverty, mortification, and the close union of their hearts with 
God, made up the whole occupation of these fervent servants of 
God, and were the rich patrimony which St. Claude left to his dis- 
ciples. He died in 703. 

JUNE 8. — ST. MEDARD, BISHOP. 

fT. MEDARD, one of the most illustrious prelates of the 
Church of France in the sixth century, was born of a 
pious and noble family, at Salency, about the year 457. 
From his childhood, he evinced the most tender compassion for 
the poor. On one occasion, he gave his coat to a destitute blind 
man, and when asked why he had done so, he answered that the 
misery of a fellow-member in Christ so affected him that he could 
not help giving him part of his own clothes. Being promoted to 
the priesthood in the thirty-third year of his age, he became a 
bright ornament of that sacred order. He preached the word of 
God with an unction which touched the hearts of the most harden- 




ed ; and the influence of his example, by which he enforced the 
precepts which he delivered from the pulpit, seemed irresistible. 
In 530, Alomer, the thirteenth Bishop of that country, dying, St. 
Medard was unanimously chosen to fill the see, and was conse- 



June 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



263 



crated by St. Remigius, who had baptized King Clovis in 496, and 
was then exceeding old. Our Saint's new dignity did not make 
him abate any thing of his austerities, and, though at that time 
seventy-two years old, he thought himself obliged to redouble his 
labors. Though his diocese was very wide, it seemed not to suf- 
fice for his zeal, which could not be confined ; wherever he saw the 
opportunity of advancing the honor of God, and of abolishing the 
remains of idolatry, he overcame all obstacles, and by his zealous 
labors and miracles the rays of the Gospel dispelled the mists of 
idolatry throughout the whole extent of his diocese. What ren- 
dered this task more difficult and perilous was the savage and 
fierce disposition of the ancient inhabitants of Flanders, who were 
the most barbarous of all the nations of the Gauls and Franks. 
Our Saint, having completed this great work in Flanders, returned 
to Noyon, where he shortly after fell sick, and soon rested from 
his labors at an advanced age, in 545. The whole kingdom la- 
mented his death as the loss of their common father and pro- 
tector. His body was buried in his own cathedral, but the many 
miracles wrought at his tomb so moved King Clotaire that he 
translated the precious remains to Soissons. 

Reflection. — The Church takes delight in styling her founder 
" The amiable Jesus," and He likewise says of Himself, " I am 
meek and humble of heart." 

JUNE 9.— SS. PRIMUS AND FELICIANUS, MARTYRS. 

HESE two martyrs were brothers, and lived in Rome, to- 
ward the latter part of the third century, for many years, 
mutually encouraging each other in the practice of all 
good works. They seemed to possess nothing but for the poor, 
and often spent both nights and days with the confessors in 
their dungeons, or at the places of their torments and execution. 
Some they encouraged to perseverance, others, who had fallen, 
they raised again, and they made themselves the servants of all in 
Christ, that all might attain to salvation through Him. Though 
their zeal was most remarkable, they had escaped the dangers of 
many bloody persecutions, and were grown old in the heroic ex- 
ercises of virtue, when it pleased God to crown their labors with 
a glorious martyrdom. The pagans raised so great an outcry 
against them that they were both apprehended and put in chains. 
They were inhumanly scourged, and then sent to a town twelve 




264 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 9. 




miles from Rome, to be farther chastised, as avowed enemies to 
the gods. There they were cruelly tortured, first both together, 
afterward separately. But the grace of God strengthened them, 
and they were at length both beheaded on the 9th of June. 



Reflection. — A soul which truly loves God regards all the 
things of this world as nothing. The loss of goods, the disgrace 
of the world, torments, sickness, and other afflictions are bitter to 
the senses, but appear light to him that loves. If we cannot bear 
our trials with patience and silence, it is because we love God 
only in words. " One who is slothful and lukewarm complains of 
every thing, and calls the lightest precepts hard," says Thomas a 
Kempis. 

ST. COLUMBA, OR COLUMKILLE, ABBOT. 

T. COLUMBA, the apostle of the Picts, was born of a noble 
family, at Gartan, in the county of Tyrconnel, a.d. 521. 
From early childhood he gave himself to God. In all his 
labors — and they were many — his chief thought was heaven and 
how he should secure the way thither. The result was that he lay 
on the bare floor, with a stone for his pillow, and fasted all the 



June 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



265 




year round; yet the sweetness of his countenance told of the holy 
soul's interior serenity. Though austere, he was not morose; and, 
often as he longed to die, he was untiring in good works through- 
out his life. After he had been made abbot, his zeal offended King 
Dermot ; and in 565 the Saint departed for Scotland, where he 
founded a hundred religious houses and converted the Picts, who, 
in gratitude, gave him the island of Iona. There St. Columba 
founded his celebrated monastery, the school of apostolic mis- 
sionaries and martyrs, and for centuries the last resting-place of 
Saints and kings. Four years before his death, our Saint had 
a vision of angels, who told him that the day of his death had 
been deferred four years, in answer to the prayers of his children ; 
whereat the Saint wept bitterly, and cried out, " Woe is me that 
my sojourning is prolonged!" for he desired above all things to 
reach his true home. How different is the conduct of most men, 
who dread death above every thing, instead of wishing " to be 
dissolved, and to be with Christ"! On the day of his peaceful 
death, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, surrounded in choir 
by his spiritual children, the 9th June, a.d. 597, he said to his 
disciple Diermit, " This day is called the Sabbath, that is, the day 
of rest, and such will it truly be to me ; for it will put an end to 
my labors." Then, kneeling before the altar, he received the 
Viaticum, and sweetly slept in the Lord. His relics were 



266 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June io. 



carried to Down and laid in the same shrine with the bodies of 
St. Patrick and St. Brigid. 

Reflection. — The thought of the world to come will always 
make us happy, and yet strict with ourselves in all our duties 
The more perfect we become, the sooner shall we behold that for 
which St. Columba sighed. 

JUNE io.— ST. MARGARET OF SCOTLAND. 

T. MARGARET'S name signifies "pearl;" " a fitting name," 
says Theodoric, her confessor and her first biographer, " for 
one such as she." Her soul was like a precious pearl. A 
life spent amidst the luxury of a royal court never dimmed its 




lustre, or stole it away from Him who had bought it with His 
blood. She was the granddaughter of an English king; and in 
1070 she became the bride of Malcolm, and reigned Queen of 
Scotland till her death in 1093. How did she become a Saint in a 
position where sanctity is so difficult ? First, she burned with zeal 
for the house of God. She built churches and monasteries ; she 
busied herself in making vestments ; she could not rest till she 
saw the laws of God and His Church observed throughout her 
realm. Next, amidst a thousand cares, she found time to converse 




June i I.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



267 



with God — ordering her piety with such sweetness and discretion 
that she won her husband to sanctity like her own. He used to 
rise with her at night for prayer; he loved to kiss the holy books 
she used, and sometimes he would steal them away, and bring them 
back to his wife covered with jewels. Lastly, with virtues so 
great, she wept constantly over her sins, and begged her confessor 
to correct her faults. St. Margaret did not neglect her duties in 
the world because she was not of it. Never was a better mother. 
She spared no pains in the education of her eight children, and 
their sanctity was the fruit of her prudence and her zeal. Never 
was a better queen. She was the most trusted counsellor of her 
husband, and she labored for the material improvement of the 
country. But, in the midst of the world's pleasures, she sighed 
for the better country, and accepted death as a release. On her 
deathbed she received the news that her husband and her eldest 
son were slain in battle. She thanked God, who had sent this 
last affliction as a penance for her sins. After receiving Holy 
Viaticum, she was repeating the prayer from the Missal, " O Lord 
Jesus Christ, who by Thy death didst give life to the world, deliver 
me." At the words " deliver me," says her biographer, she took 
her departure to Christ, the Author of true liberty. 

Reflection. — All perfection consists in keeping a guard upon 
the heart. Wherever we are, we can make a solitude in our hearts, 
detach ourselves from the world, and converse familiarly with God. 
Let us take St. Margaret for our example and encouragement. 

JUNE 11.— ST. BARNABAS, APOSTLE. 

E read that in the first days of the Church, " the multitude 
of believers had but one heart and one soul; neither did 
any one say that aught of the things which he possessed 
was his own." Of this fervent company, one only is singled out 
by name, Joseph, a rich Levite, from Cyprus. " He having land 
sold it, and brought the price and laid it at the feet of the 
Apostles." They now gave him a new name, Barnabas, the son of 
consolation. " He was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and 
of faith," and was soon chosen for an important mission to the 
rapidly-growing Church of Antioch. Here he perceived the great 
work which was to be done among the Greeks, so hastened to fetch 
St. Paul from his retirement at Tarsus. It was at Antioch that the 
two Saints were called to the apostolate of the Gentiles, ar d hence 



268 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [June 12. 




they set out together to Cyprus and the cities of Asia Minor. 
Their preaching struck men with amazement, and some cried out, 
"The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men" calling 
Paul Mercury, and Barnabas Jupiter. The Saints travelled to- 
gether to the Council of Jerusalem but shortly after this they 
parted. When Agabus prophesied a great famine, Barnabas, no 
longer rich, was chosen by the faithful at Antioch as most fit to 
bear, with St. Paul, their generous offerings to the Church of Je- 
rusalem. The gentle Barnabas, keeping with him John, surnamed 
Mark, whom St. Paul distrusted, betook himself to Cyprus, where 
the sacred history leaves him ; and here, at a later period, he won 
his martyr's crown. 

Reflection. — St. Barnabas's life is full of suggestions to us 
who live in days when once more the abundant alms of the faith- 
ful are sorely needed by the whole Church, from the Sovereign 
Pontiff to the poor children in our streets. 

JUNE 12.— ST. JOHN OF ST. FACUNDUS. 

T. JOHN was born at St. Fagondez, in Spain. At an early 
age he held several benefices in the diocese of Burgos, 
till the reproaches of his conscience forced him to resign 
them all except one chapel, where he said Mass daily, preached, 




June 12.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



269 



and catechised. After this he studied theology at Salamanca, and 
then labored for some time as a most devoted missionary priest. 
Ultimately he became a hermit of the Augustinian Order, in the 
same city. There his life was marked by a singular devotion to 
the Holy Mass. Each night after Matins he remained in prayer 
till the hour of celebration, when he offered the Adorable Sacrifice 
with the most tender piety, often enjoying the sight of Jesus in 
glory, and holding sweet colloquies with Him. The power of his 
personal holiness was seen in his preaching, which produced a 
complete reformation in Salamanca. He had a special gift of 
reconciling differences, and was enabled to put an end to the 
quarrels and feuds among noblemen, at that period very common 
and fatal. The boldness shown by St. John in reproving vice en- 
dangered his life. A powerful noble, having been corrected by 
the Saint for oppressing his vassals, sent two assassins to slay him. 
The holiness of the Saint's aspect, however, caused by that peace 
which continually reigned in his soul, struck such awe into their 
minds that they could not execute their purpose, but humbly be- 
sought his forgiveness. And the nobleman himself, falling sick, 




was brought to repentance, and recovered his health by the 
prayers of the Saint whom he had endeavored to murder. He was 
also most zealous in denouncing those hideous vices which are a 
fruitful source of strife, and it was in defence of holy purity that 



270 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 13. 



he met his death. A lady of noble birth but evil life, whose com- 
panion in sin St. John had converted, contrived to administer a 
fatal poison to the Saint. After several months of terrible suffer- 
ing, borne with unvarying patience, St. John went to his reward 
on June nth, 1479. 

Reflection. — All men desire peace, but those alone enjoy it 
who, like St. John, are completely dead to themselves, and love 
to bear all things for Christ. 



N 1 22 1 St. Francis held a general chapter at Assisi ; when the 



others dispersed, there lingered behind, unknown and neglect- 



ed, a poor Portuguese friar, resolved to ask for and to refuse 
nothing. Nine months later, Fra Antonio rose under obedience 
to preach to the religious assembled at Forli, when, as the dis- 
course proceeded, " the Hammer of Heretics," " the Ark of the 
Testament," " the eldest son of St. Francis," stood revealed in all 
his sanctity, learning, and eloquence before his rapt and astonished 
brethren. Devoted from earliest youth to prayer and study among 
the canons regular, Ferdinand de Bulloens, as his name was in the 
world, had been stirred, by the spirit and example of the first five 
Franciscan martyrs, to put on their habit and preach the faith to 
the Moors in Africa. Denied a martyr's palm, and enfeebled by 
sickness, at the age of twenty-seven he was taking silent but 
merciless revenge upon himself in the humblest offices of his 
community. From this obscurity he was now called forth, and 
for nine years France, Italy, and Sicily heard his voice, saw his 
miracles, and men's hearts turned to God. One night, when St. 
Antony was staying with a friend in the city of Padua, his host 
saw brilliant rays streaming under the door of the Saint's room, 
and on looking through the keyhole, he beheld a little Child of 
marvellous beauty standing upon a book which lay open upon the 
table, and clinging with both arms round Antony's neck. With 
an ineffable sweetness he watched the tender caresses of the Saint 
and his wondrous Visitor. At last the Child vanished, and Fra 
Antonio, opening the door, charged his friend, by the love of Him 
whom he had seen, to "tell the vision to no man" as long as he 
was alive. Suddenly, in 123 1, our Saint's brief apostolate was 
closed, and the voices of children were heard crying along the 
streets of Padua, " Our father, St. Antony, is dead." The follow- 



JUNE 13.— ST. ANTONY OF PADUA. 




June 14.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



271 




ing year, the church-bells of Lisbon rang without ringers, while 
at Rome one of its sons was inscribed among the Saints of God. 



Reflection. — Let us love to pray and labor unseen, and cher- 
ish in the secret of our hearts the graces of God and the growth 
of our immortal souls. Like St. Antony, let us attend to this, and 
leave the rest to God. 



JUNE 14.— ST. BASIL THE GREAT. 

T. BASIL was born in Asia Minor. Two of his brothers 
became bishops, and, together with his mother and sister, 
are honored as Saints. He studied with great success at 
Athens, where he formed with St. Gregory Nazianzen the most 
tender friendship. He then taught oratory; but dreading the 
honors of the world, he gave up all, and became the father of the 
monastic life in the East. The Arian heretics, supported by the 
court, were then persecuting the Church; and Basil was sum- 
moned from his retirement by his bishop to give aid against them. 
His energy and zeal soon mitigated the disorders of the Church, 
and his solid and eloquent words silenced the heretics. On the 
death of Eusebius, he was chosen Bishop of Csesarea. His com- 
manding character, his firmness and energy, his learning and ela* 




272 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 14. 



quence, and not less his humility and the exceeding austerity of 
his life, made him a model for bishops. When St. Basil was 
required to admit the Arians to Communion, the prefect, rinding 
that soft words had no effect, said to him, " Are you mad, that you 
resist the will before which the whole world bows ? Do you not 
dread the wrath of the emperor, nor exile, nor death?" "No," 
said Basil calmly ; " he who has nothing to lose need not dread 
loss of goods ; you cannot exile me, for the whole earth is my 
home; as for death, it would be the greatest kindness you could 
bestow upon me; torments cannot harm me : one blow would end 




my frail life and my sufferings together." " Never," said the pre- 
fect, " has any one dared to address me thus." " Perhaps," sug- 
gested Basil, " you never before measured your strength with a 
Christian bishop." The emperor desisted from his commands. St. 
Basil's whole life was one of suffering. He lived amidst jealousies 
and misunderstandings and seeming disappointments. But he 
sowed the seed which bore goodly fruit in the next generation, 
and was God's instrument in beating back the Arian and other 
heretics in the East, and restoring the spirit of discipline and fer- 
vor in the Church. He died in 379, and is venerated as a Doctor 
of the Church. 

Reflection. — " Fear God," says the Imitation of Christ, " and 
thou shalt have no need of being afraid of any man." 



June 15.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



273 



JUNE 15.— SS. VITUS, CRESCENTIA, AND MODESTUS, 
MARTYRS. 

ITUS was a child nobly born, who had the happiness to be 
instructed in the faith, and inspired with the most perfect 
sentiments of his religion, by his Christian nurse, named 
Crescentia, and her faithful husband, Modestus. His father, Hylas, 
was extremely incensed when he discovered the child's invincible 
aversion to idolatry ; and finding him not to be overcome by 
stripes and such like chastisements, he delivered him up to Vale- 
rian, the governor, who in vain tried all his arts to work him into 




compliance with his father's will and the emperor's edicts. He 
escaped out of their hands, and, together with Crescentia and Mo- 
destus, fled into Italy. They there met with the crown of martyr- 
dom in Lucania, in the persecution of Diocletian. The heroic 
spirit of martyrdom which we admire in St. Vitus was owing to 
the early impressions of piety which he received from the lessons 
and example of a virtuous nurse. Of such infinite importance is 
the choice of virtuous preceptors, nurses, and servants about 
children. 

Reflection. — What happiness for an infant to be formed 
naturally to all virtue, and for the spirit of simplicity, meekness, 
goodness, and piety to be moulded in its tender frame ! Such a 



274 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 16. 



foundation being well laid, further graces are abundantly com- 
municated, and a soul improves daily these seeds, and rises to the 
height of Christian virtue often without experiencing severe con- 
flicts of the passions. 

JUNE 16.— ST. JOHN FRANCIS REGIS. 

T. JOHN FRANCIS REGIS was born in Languedoc, a.d. 
1597. From his tenderest years he showed evidences of un- 
common sanctity by his innocence of life, modesty, and love 
of prayer. At the age of eighteen he entered the Society of Jesus. 




As soon as his studies were over, he gave himself entirely to the 
salvation of souls. The winter he spent in country missions, 
principally in mountainous districts ; and in spite of the rigor of 
the weather and the ignorance and roughness of the inhabitants, 
he labored with such success that he gained innumerable souls to 
God both from heresy and from a bad life. The summer he gave 
to the towns. There his time was taken up in visiting hospitals 
and prisons, in preaching and instructing, and in assisting all who 
in any way stood in need of his services. In his works of mercy, 
God often helped him by miracles. In November, 1637, the Saint 
set out for his second mission at Marthes. His road lay across 
valleys filled with snow and over mountains frozen and precipi- 




June 17.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



tous. In climbing one of the highest, a bush to which he was 
clinging gave way, and he broke his leg in the fall. By the help 
of his companion he accomplished the remaining six miles, and 
then, instead of seeing a surgeon, insisted on being taken straight 
to the confessional. There, after several hours, the curate of the 
parish found him still seated, and when his leg was examined the 
fracture was found to be miraculously healed. He was so in- 
flamed with the love of God that he seemed to breathe, think, 
speak of that alone, and he offered up the Holy Sacrifice with such 
attention and fervor that those who assisted at it could not but 
feel something of the fire with which he burned. After twelve 
years of unceasing labor, he rendered his pure and innocent soul 
to his Creator, at the age of forty-four. 

Reflection. — When St. John Francis was struck in the face by 
a sinner whom he was reproving, he replied, " If you only knew 
me, you would give me much more than that." His meekness 
converted the man, and it is in this spirit that he teaches us to win 
souls to God. How much might we do if we could forget our 
own wants in remembering those of others, and put our trust in 
God! 

JUNE 17.— ST. AVITUS, ABBOT. 

T. AVITUS was a native of Orleans, and, retiring into Au- 
vergne, took the monastic habit, together with St. Calais, in 
the Abbey of Menat, at that time very small, though after- 
ward enriched by Queen Brunehault, and by St. Boner, Bishop 
of Clermont. The two Saints soon after returned to Miscy, a 
famous abbey situated a league and a half below Orleans. It was 
founded toward the end of the reign of Clovis I. by St. Euspicius, 
a holy priest, honored on the 14th of June, and his nephew St. 
Maximin or Mesmin, whose name this monastery, which is now 
of the Cistercian Order, bears. Many call St. Maximin the first 
abbot, others St. Euspicius the first, St. Maximin- the second, and 
St. Avitus the third. But our Saint and St. Calais made not a 
long stay at Miscy, though St. Maximin gave them a gracious re- 
ception. In quest of a closer retirement, St. Avitus, who had suc- 
ceeded St. Maximin, soon after resigned the abbacy, and with St 
Calais lived a recluse in the territory now called Dunois, on the 
frontiers of La Perche. Others joining them, St. Calais retired into 
a forest in Maine, and King Clothaire built a church and monas- 




276 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 18 




tery for St. Avitus and "his companions. . This is at present a 
Benedictine nunnery, called St. Avy of Chateaudun, and is situ- 
ated on the Loire, at the foot of the hill on which' the town of 
Chateaudun is built, in the diocese of Chartres. Three famous 
monks, Leobin, afterward Bishop of Chartres, Euphronius, and 
Rusticus, attended our Saint to his happy death, which happened 
about the year 530. His body was carried to Orleans, and buried 
with great pomp in that city. 



JUNE 18.— SS. MARCUS AND MARCELLIANUS, MARTYRS. 

ARCUS and Marcellianus were twin brothers of an illus- 
trious family in Rome, who had been converted to the 
faith in their youth and were honorably married. Dio- 
cletian ascending the imperial throne in 284, the heathens raised 
persecutions. These martyrs were thrown into prison, and con- 
demned to be beheaded. Their friends obtained a respite of the 
execution for thirty days, that they might prevail on them to 
worship the false gods. Tranquillinus and Martia, their afflicted 
heathen parents, in company with their sons' own wives and their 
little babes, endeavored to move them by the most tender en- 
treaties and tears. St. Sebastian, an officer of the emperor's 
household, coming to Rome soon after their commitment, daily 




June 19.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



277 




visited and encouraged them. The issue of the conferences was 
the happy conversion of the father, mother, and wives, also of 
Nicostratus, the public register, and soon after of Chromatius, 
the judge, who set the Saints at liberty, and, abdicating the magis- 
tracy, retired into the country. Marcus and Marcellianus were 
hid by a Christian officer of the household, in his apartments in 
the palace ; but they were betrayed by an apostate, and retaken. 
Fabian, who had succeeded Chromatius, condemned them to be 
bound to two pillars, with their feet nailed to the same. In this 
posture they remained a day and a night, and on the following: 
day were stabbed with lances. 

Reflection. — We know not what we are till we have been 
tried. It costs nothing to say we love God above all things, and 
to show the courage of martyrs at a distance from the danger ; 
but that love is sincere which has stood the proof. " Persecution 
shows who is a hireling, and who a true pastor," says St. Bernard. 

JUNE 19.— ST. JULIANA FALCONIERI. 

ULIANA FALCONIERI was born, in answer to prayer, 
a.d. 1270. Her father built the splendid church of the An- 
nunziata in Florence, while her uncle, Blessed Alexius, 
became one of the founders of the Servite Order. Under his care, 




278 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 19. 



Juliana grew up, as he said, more like an angel than a human 
being. Such was her modesty that she never used a mirror or 
gazed upon the face of a man during her whole life. The mere 
mention of sin made her shudder and tremble, and once hearing 
a scandal related she fell into a dead swoon. Her devotion to 
the sorrows of our Lady drew her to the Servants of Mary ; and, 
at the age of fourteen, she refused an offer of marriage, and re- 
ceived the habit from St. Philip Benizi himself. Her sanctity 
attracted many novices, for whose direction she was bidden to 
draw up a rule, and thus with reluctance she became foundress of 




the " Mantellate." She was with her children as their servant 
rather than their mistress, while outside her convent she led a life 
of apostolic charity, converting sinners, reconciling enemies, and 
healing the sick by sucking with her own lips their ulcerous 
sores. She was sometimes rapt for whole days in ecstasy, and 
her prayers saved the Servite Order when it was in danger of 
being suppressed. She was visited in her last hour by angels in 
the form of white doves, and Jesus Himself, as a beautiful child, 
crowned her with a garland of flowers. She wasted away through 
;a disease of the stomach, which prevented her taking food. She 
bore her silent agony with constant cheerfulness, grieving only 
for the privation of Holy Communion. At last, when, in her 
seventieth year, she had sunk to the point of death, she begged to 



June 20.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



2/9 



be allowed once more to see and adore the Blessed Sacrament. 
It was brought to her cell, and reverently laid on a corporal, 
which was placed over her heart. At this moment she expired, 
and the Sacred Host disappeared. After her death the form of 
the Host was found stamped upon her heart in the exact spot 
over which the Blessed Sacrament had been placed. Juliana died 
a.d. 1340. 

Reflection.— " Meditate often," says St. Paul of the Cross, 
" on the sorrows of the Holy Mother, sorrows inseparable from 
those of her beloved Son. If you seek the Cross, there you will 
find the Mother; and where the Mother is, there also is the Son." 



JUNE 20.— ST. SILVERIUS, POPE AND MARTYR. 

fILVERIUS was son of Pope Hermisdas, who had been mar- 
ried before he entered the ministry. Upon the death of St. 
Agapetas, after a vacancy of forty-seven days, Silverius, 
then subdeacon, was chosen Pope, and ordained on the 8th of 
June, 536. 

Theodora, the empress of Justinian, resolved to promote the 
sect of the Acephali. She endeavored to win Silverius over to her 
interest, and wrote to him, ordering that he should acknowledge 
Anthimus lawful bishop, or repair in person to Constantinople and 
re-examine his cause on the spot. Without the least hesitation 
or delay, Silverius returned her a short answer, by which he per- 
emptorily gave her to understand that he neither could nor would 
obey her unjust demands and betray the cause of the Catholic 
faith. The empress, finding that she could expect nothing from 
him, resolved to have him deposed. Vigilius, archdeacon of the 
Roman Church, a man of address, was then at Constantinople. 
To him the empress made her application, and finding him taken 
by the bait of ambition, promised to make him Pope, and to be- 
stow on him seven hundred pieces of gold, provided he would 
engage himself to condemn the Council of Chalcedon and receive 
to communion the three deposed Eutychian patriarchs, Anthimus 
of Constantinople, Severus of Antioch, and Theodosius of Alexan- 
dria. The unhappy Vigilius having assented to these conditions, 
the empress sent him to Rome, charged with a letter to the general 
Belisarius, commanding him to drive out Silverius and to contrive 
the election of Vigilius to the pontificate. Vigilius urged the 
general to execute the project. The more easily to carry out this 



28o 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 20. 



project, the Pope was accused of corresponding with the enemy, 
and a letter was produced, which was pretended to have been 
written by him to the king of the Goths, inviting him into the city, 
and promising to open the gates to him. Silverius was banished 
to Patara, in Lycia. The bishop of that city received the illustrious 
exile with all possible marks of honor and respect; and thinking 
himself bound to undertake his defence, repaired to Constantino- 
ple, and spoke boldly to the emperor, terrifying him with the threats 
of the divine judgments for the expulsion of a bishop of so great 




a see, telling him, " There are many kings in the world, but there 
is only one Pope over the Church of the whole world." It must 
be observed that these were the words of an Oriental bishop, and a 
clear confession of the supremacy of the Roman See. Justinian 
appeared startled at the atrocity of the proceedings, and gave 
orders that Silverius should be sent back to Rome, but the ene- 
mies of the Pope contrived to prevent it, and he was intercepted on 
his road toward Rome and carried to a desert island, where he 
died on the 20th of June, 538. 



June 21.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



28l 



JUNE 21.— ST. ALOYSIUS GONZAGA. 

T. ALOYSIUS, the eldest son of Ferdinand Gonzaga, Mar- 
quis of Castiglione, was born on the 9th of March, 1568. 
The first words he pronounced were the holy names of Jesus 
and Mary. When he was nine years of age he made a vow of 
perpetual virginity, and by a special grace was ever exempted 
from temptations against purity. He received his first communion 
at the hands of St. Charles Borromeo. At an early age he re- 
solved to leave the world, and in a vision was directed by our 




Blessed Lady to join the Society of Jesus. The Saint's mother 
rejoiced on learning his determination to become a religious, but 
his father for three years refused his consent. At length St. Aloy- 
sius obtained permission to enter the novitiate on the 25th of No- 
vember, 1585. He took his vows after two years, and went through 
the ordinary course of philosophy and theology. He was wont to 
say he doubted whether without penance grace would continue to 
make head against nature, which, when not afflicted and chastised, 
tends gradually to relapse into its old state, losing the habit of 
suffering acquired by the labor of years. " I am a crooked piece 
of iron," he said, ''and am come into religion to be made straight 
by the hammer of mortification and penance." During his last 
year of theology a malignant fever broke out in Rome; the Saint 
offered himself for the service of the sick, and he was accepted for 




282 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 22. 



the dangerous duty. Several of the brothers caught the fever, and 
Aloysius was of the number. He was brought to the point of 
death, but recovered, only to fall, however, into slow fever, which 
carried hirn off after three months. He died, repeating the Holy 
Name, a little after midnight between the 20th and 21st of June on 
the octave-day of Corpus Christi, being rather more than twenty- 
three years of age. 

Reflection. — Cardinal Bellarmine, the Saint's confessor, testi- 
fied that he had never mortally offended God. Yet he chastised 
his body rigorously, rose at night to pray, and shed many tears for 
his sins. Pray that, not having followed his innocence, you may 
yet imitate his penance. 



JUNE 22.— ST. PAULINUS OF NOLA. 

vTp^AULINUS was of a family which boasted of a long line of 
senators, prefects, and consuls. He was educated with great 
care, and his genius and eloquence, in prose and verse, were 
the admiration of St. Jerome and St. Augustine. He had more 
than doubled his wealth by marriage, and was one of the foremost 
men of his time. Though he was the chosen friend of Saints, and 
had a great devotion to St. Felix of Nola, he was still only a cate- 
chumen, trying to serve two masters. But God drew him to Him- 
self along the way of sorrows and trials. He received baptism, 
withdrew into Spain to be alone, and then, in consort with his 
holy wife, sold all their vast estates in various parts of the empire, 
distributing their proceeds so prudently that St. Jerome says 
East and West were filled with his alms. He was then ordained 
priest, and retired to Nola in Campania. There he rebuilt the 
Church of St. Felix with great magnificence, and served it night 
and day, living a life of extreme abstinence and toil. In 409 he 
was chosen bishop, and for more than thirty years so ruled as to 
be conspicuous in an age blessed with many great and wise 
bishops. St. Gregory the Great tells us that when the Vandals of 
Africa had made a descent on Campania, Paulinus spent all he had 
in relieving the distress of his people and redeeming them from 
slavery. At last there came a poor widow ; her only son had been 
carried off by the son-in-law of the Vandal king. " Such as I have 
I give thee," said the Saint to her; " we will go to Africa, and I 
will give myself for your son." Having overborne her resistance, 
they went, and Paulinus was accepted in place of the widow's son, 



June 23.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



283 




and employed as gardener. After a time the king found out, by 
divine interposition, that his son-in-law's slave was the great 
Bishop of Nola. He at once set him free, granting him also the 
freedom of all the townsmen of Nola who were in slavery. One 
who knew him well says he was meek as Moses, priestlike as 
Aaron, innocent as Samuel, tender as David, wise as Solomon, 
apostolic as Peter, loving as John, cautious as Thomas, keen-sighted 
as Stephen, fervent as Apollos. He died a.d. 431. 

Reflection. — " Go to Campania," writes St. Augustine ; " there 
study Paulinus, that choice servant of God. With what gene- 
rosity, with what still greater humility, he has flung from him the 
burden of this world's grandeurs to take on him the yoke of Christ, 
and in His service how serene and unobtrusive his life !" 

JUNE 23.— ST. ETHELDREDA, ABBESS. 

ORN and brought up in the fear of God — her mother and 
three sisters are numbered among the Saints — Etheldreda 
had but one aim in life, to devote herself to His service in 
the religious state. Her parents, however, had other views for 
her, and, in spite of her tears and prayers, she was compelled to be- 
come the wife of Tonbercht, a tributary of the Mercian king. She 
lived with him as a virgin for three years, and at his death retired 




284 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 23. 



to the isle of Ely, that she might apply herself wholly to heavenly 
things. This happiness was but short-lived ; for Egfrid, the power- 
ful king of Northumbria, pressed his suit upon her with such 
eagerness that she was forced into a second marriage. Her life at 
his court was that of an ascetic rather than a queen : she lived with 
him not as a wife, but as a sister, and, observing a scrupulous 
regularity of discipline, devoted her time to works of mercy and 
love. After twelve years, she retired with her husband's consent 
to Coldingham Abbey, which was then under the rule of St. Ebba, 
and received the veil from the hands of St. Wilfrid. As soon as 
Etheldreda had left the court of her husband, he repented of having 
consented to her departure, and followed her, meaning to bring 
her back by force. She took refuge on a headland on the coast 
near Coldingham ; and here a miracle took place, for the waters 
forced themselves a passage round the hill, barring the further ad- 
vance of Egfrid. The Saint remained in this island refuge for 
seven days, till the king, recognizing the divine will, agreed to 




leave her in peace. God, who by a miracle confirmed the Saint's 
vocation, will not fail us if, with a single heart, we elect for Him. 
In 672 she returned to Ely, and founded there a double monastery. 
The nunnery she governed herself, and was by her example a liv- 
ing rule of perfection to her sisters. Some time after her death, in 
679, her body was found incorrupt, and St. Bede records many 
miracles worked by her relics. 



June 24.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



285 



Reflection. — The soul cannot truly serve God while it is in- 
volved in the distractions and pleasures of the world. Etheldreda 
knew this, and chose rather to be a servant of Christ her Lord than 
the mistress of an earthly court. Resolve, in whatever state you 
are, to live absolutely detached from the world, and to separate 
yourself as much as possible from it. 



JUNE 24.— ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

tHE birth of St. John was foretold by an angel of the Lord to 
his father, Zachary, who was offering incense in the temple. 
It was the office of St. John to prepare the way for Christ, and 
before he was born into the world he began to live for the Incar- 
nate God. Even in the womb he knew the presence of Jesus and of 
Mary, and he leaped with joy at the glad coming of the Son of Man. 
In his youth he remained hidden, because He for whom he waited 




was hidden also. But before Christ's public life began, a divine 
impulse led St. John into the desert ; there, with locusts for his 
food and haircloth on his skin, in silence and in prayer, he chas- 
tened his own soul. Then, as crowds broke in upon his solitude, 
he warned them to flee from the wrath to come, and gave them the 
baptism of penance, while they confessed their sins. At last there 
stood in the crowd one whom St. John did not know, till a voice 



286 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 25. 



within told him that it was his Lord. With the baptism of St. John, 
Christ began His penance for the sins of His people, and St. John 
saw the Holy Ghost descend in bodily form upon Him. Then the 
Saint's work was done. He had but to point his own disciples to 
the Lamb, he had but to decrease as Christ increased. He saw all 
men leave him and go after Christ. " I told you," he said, " that 
I am not the Christ. The friend of the Bridegroom rejoiceth be- 
cause of the Bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is ful- 
filled." St. John had been cast into the fortress of Machserus by a 
worthless tyrant whose crimes he had rebuked, and he was to re- 
main there till he was beheaded, at the will of a girl who danced 
before this wretched king. In this time of despair, if St. John 
could have known despair, some of his old disciples visited him. 
St. John did not speak to them of himself, but he sent them to 
Christ, that they might see the proofs of His mission. Then 
the Eternal Truth pronounced the panegyric of the Saint who had 
lived and breathed for Him alone. " Verily I say unto you, Among 
them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than 
John the Baptist." 

Reflection. — St. John was great before God because he forgot 
himself and lived for Jesus Christ, who is the source of all great- 
ness. Remember that you are nothing ; your own will and your 
own desires can only lead to misery and sin. Therefore sacrifice 
every day some one of your natural inclinations to the Sacred 
Heart of our Lord, and learn little by little to lose yourself in 
Him. 




JUNE 25. — ST. PROSPER OF AQUITAINE.— -ST. WILLIAM OF 
MONTE-VERGINE. 

fT. PROSPER was born at Aquitaine, in the year 403. His 
works show that in his youth he had happily applied himself 
to all the branches both of polite and sacred learning. On 
account of the purity and sanctity of his manners, he is called by 
those of his age a holy and venerable man. Our Saint does not 
appear to have been any more than a layman ; but being of great 
virtue, and of extraordinary talents and learning, he wrote several 
works in which he ably refuted the errors of heresy. St. Leo the 
Great, being chosen Pope in 440, invited St. Prosper to Rome, 
made him his secretary, and employed him in the most important 
affairs of the Church. Our Saint crushed the Pelagian heresy, 



J 



UNE 25.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



287 




which began again to raise its head in that capital, and its final 
overthrow is said to be due to his zeal, learning, and unwearied 
endeavors. The date of his death is uncertain, but he was still 
living in 463. 



St. William, having lost his father and mother in his infancy, 
w T as brought up by his friends in great sentiments of piety; and 
at fifteen years of age, out of an earnest desire to lead a peniten- 
tial life, he left Piedmont, his native country, made an austere pil- 
grimage to St. James's in Galicia, and afterward retired into the 
kingdom of Naples, where he chose for his abode a desert moun- 
tain, and lived in perpetual contemplation and the exercises of 
most rigorous penitential austerities. Finding himself discovered 
and his contemplation interrupted, he changed his habitation and 
settled in a place called Monte-Vergine, situated between Nola and 
Benevento, in the same kingdom ; but his reputation followed 
him, and he was obliged by two neighboring priests to permit cer- 
tain fervent persons to live with him and to imitate his ascetic 
practices. Thus, in 11 19, was laid the foundation of the religious 
congregation called de Monte-Vergine. The Saint died on the 25th 
of June, 1142. 



288 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 26. 



JUNE 26.— SS. JOHN AND PAUL, MARTYRS. 

fHESE two Saints were both officers in the army under Julian 
the Apostate, and received the crown of martyrdom, probably 
in 362. They glorified God by a double victory: they de- 
spised the honors of the world, and triumphed over its threats 
and torments. They saw many wicked men prosper in their im- 
piety, but were not dazzled by their example. They considered 
that worldly prosperity which attends impunity in sin is the most 




dreadful of all judgments ; and how false and short-lived was this 
glittering prosperity of Julian, who in a moment fell into the pit 
which he himself had dug ! But the martyrs, by the momentary 
labor of their conflict, purchased an immense weight of never- 
fading glory ; their torments were, by their heroic patience and 
invincible virtue and fidelity, a spectacle worthy of God, who 
looked down upon them from the throne of His glory, and held 
His arm stretched out to strengthen them, and to put on their 
heads immortal crowns in the happy moment of their victory. 

Reflection. — The Saints always accounted that they had done 
nothing for Christ so long as they had not resisted to blood, and 
by pouring forth the last drop completed their sacrifice. Every 
action of our lives ought to spring from this fervent motive, and 



June 27.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



289 



we should consecrate ourselves to the divine service with our 
whole strength ; we must always bear in mind that we owe to 
God all that we are, and, after all we can do, are unprofitable ser- 
vants, and do only what we are bound to do. 



JUNE 27.— ST. LADISLAS, KING. 




to ascend the throne, in 1080. He restored the good laws and 
discipline which St. Stephen had established, and which seem 
to have been obliterated by the confusion of the times. Chastity, 
meekness, gravity, charity, and piety were from his infancy the 
distinguishing parts of his character ; avarice and ambition were 
his sovereign aversion, so perfectly had the maxims of the Gospel 
extinguished in him all propensity to those base passions. His 
life in the palace was most austere ; he was frugal and abste- 
mious, but most liberal to the Church and the poor. Vanity, pleas- 
ure, or idle amusements had no share in his actions or time, because 
all his moments were consecrated to the exercises of religion and 
the duties of his station, in which he had only the divine will in 
view, and sought only God's greater honor. He watched over a 



290 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 28. 



strict and impartial administration of justice, was generous and 
merciful to his enemies, and vigorous in the defence of his coun- 
try and the Church. He drove the Huns out of his territories, and 
vanquished the Poles, Russians, and Tartars. He was preparing 
to command, as general-in-chief, the great expedition of the Chris- 
tians against the Saracens for the recovery of the Holy Land, 
when God called him to Himself, on the 30th of July, 1095. 

Reflection. — The Saints filled all their moments with good 
works and great actions; and, whilst they labored for an immortal 
crown, the greatest share of worldly happiness of which this life 
is capable fell in their way without being even looked for by 
them. In their afflictions themselves, virtue afforded them the 
most solid comfort, pointed out the remedy, and converted their 
tribulations into the greatest advantages. 



JUNE 28.— ST. IRENiEUS, BISHOP, MARTYR. 

tHIS Saint was born about the year 120. He was a Grecian, 
probably a native of Lesser Asia. • His parents, who were 
Christians, placed him under the care of the great St. Poly- 
carp, Bishop of Smyrna. It was in so holy a school that he 
learned that sacred science which rendered him afterward a great 
ornament of the Church and the terror of her enemies. St. Poly- 
carp cultivated his rising genius, and formed his mind to piety by 
precepts and example; and the zealous scholar was careful to 
reap all the advantages which were offered him by the happiness 
of such a master. Such was his veneration for his tutor's sanctity 
that he observed every action and whatever he saw in that holy man, 
the better to copy his example and learn his spirit. He listened 
to- his instructions with an insatiable ardor, and so deeply did he 
engrave them on his heart that the impressions remained most 
lively even to his old age. In order to confute the heresies of his 
age, this father made himself acquainted with the most absurd 
conceits of their philosophers, by which means he was qualified 
to trace up every error to its sources and set it in its full light. 
St. Polycarp sent St. Irenaeus into Gaul, in company with some 
priest ; he was himself ordained priest of the Church of Lyons by 
St. Pothinus. St. Pothinus having glorified God by his happy 
death, in the year 177, our Saint was chosen the second Bishop of 
Lyons. By his preaching, he in a short time converted almost 
that whole country to the faith. He wrote several works against 



June 29.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



291 




heresy, and at last, with many others, suffered martyrdom about 
the year 202, under the Emperor Severus, at Lyons. 

Reflection. — Fathers and mothers, and heads of families, spirit- 
ual and temporal, should bear in mind that inferiors " will not be 
corrected by words" alone, but that example is likewise needful. 



JUNE 29.-ST. PETER, APOSTLE. 

§|ETER was of Bethsaida in Galilee, and as he was fishing on 
the lake was called by our Lord to be one of His Apostles. 
He was poor and unlearned, but candid, eager, and loving. 
In his heart, first of all, grew up the conviction, and from his lips 
came the confession, " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 
God;" and so our Lord chose him, and fitted him to be the Rock 
of His Church, His Vicar on earth, the head and prince of His 
Apostles, the centre and very principle of the Church's oneness, 
the source of all spiritual powers, and the unerring teacher of 
His truth. All Scripture is alive with him ; but after Pentecost he 
stands out in the full grandeur of his office. He fills the vacant 
apostolic throne; admits the Jews by thousands into the fold; 
opens it to the Gentiles in the person of Cornelius; founds, and 
for a time rules, the Church at Antioch, and sends Mark to found 
that of Alexandria. Ten years after the Ascension, he went to 



292 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[June 29. 



Rome, the centre of the majestic Roman Empire, where were gath- 
ered the glories and the wealth of the earth and all the powers of 
evil. There he established his Chair, and for twenty-five years la- 
bored with St. Paul in building up the great Roman Church. He 
was crucified by order of Nero, and buried on the Vatican Hill. 
He wrote two Epistles, and suggested and approved the Gospel of 
St. Mark. Two hundred and sixty years after St. Peter's martyrdom 
came the open triumph of the Church. Pope St. Silvester, with 
bishops and clergy and the whole body of the faithful, went 
through Rome in procession to the Vatican Hill, singing the praises 
of God till the seven hills rang again. The first Christian emperor, 




laying aside his diadem and his robes of state, began to dig the 
foundations of St. Peter's Church. And now on the site of that 
old church stands the noblest temple ever raised by man; be- 
neath a towering canopy lie the great Apostles, in death, as in life, 
undivided; and there is the Chair of St. Peter. All around rest 
the martyrs of Christ — Popes, Saints, Doctors, from east and 
west — and high over all, the words, " Thou art Peter, and on this 
Rock I will build my Church." It is the threshold of the Apostles 
and the centre of the world. 

Reflection. — Peter still lives on in his successors, and rules 
and feeds the flock committed to him. The reality of our devo- 
tion to him is the surest test of the purity of our faith. 



June 30.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



2 93 



JUNE 30.— ST. PAUL. 

T. PAUL was born at Tarsus, of Jewish parents, and studied 
at Jerusalem, at the feet of Gamaliel. While still a young 
man, he held the clothes of those who stoned the proto-mar- 
tyr Stephen ; and in his restless zeal he pressed on to Damascus, 
" breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of 
Christ." But near Damascus a light from heaven struck him to 
the earth. He heard a voice which said, " Why persecutest thou 
Me ?" He saw the form of Him who had been crucified for his 
sins, and then for three days he saw nothing more. He awoke 




from his trance another man — a new creature in Jesus Christ. He 
left Damascus for a long retreat in Arabia, and then, at the call 
of God, he carried the Gospel to the uttermost limits of the 
world, and for years he lived and labored with no thought but 
the thought of Christ crucified, no desire but to spend and be 
spent for Him. He became the Apostle of the Gentiles, whom he 
had been taught to hate, and wished himself anathema for his 
own countrymen, who sought his life. Perils by land and sea 
could not damp his courage, nor toil and suffering and age dull 
the tenderness of his heart. At last he gave blood for blood. In 
his youth he had imbibed the false zeal of the Pharisees at Jeru- 
salem, the holy city of the former dispensation. With St. Peter 




2 9 4 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July i. 



he consecrated Rome, our holy city, by his martyrdom, and 
poured into its Church all his doctrine with all his blood. He 
left fourteen Epistles, which have been a fountain-head of the 
Church's doctrine, the consolation and delight of her greatest 
Saints. His interior life, so far as words can tell it, lies open be- 
fore us in these divine writings, the life of one who has died for- 
ever to himself and risen again in Jesus Christ. " In what," says 
St. Chrysostom, "in what did this blessed one gain an advantage 
over the other Apostles? How comes it that he lives in all men's 
mouths throughout the world ? Is it not through the virtue of 
his Epistles ?" Nor will his work cease while the race of man 
continues. Even now, like a most chivalrous knight, he stands 
in our midst, and takes captive every thought to the obedience of 



Reflection. — St. Paul complains that all seek the things 
which are their own, and not the things which are Christ's. See 
if these words apply to you, and resolve to give yourself without 
reserve to God. 



T. GAL was born at Clermont in Auvergne, about the year 



489. His father was of the first houses of that province, and 



his mother was descended from the family of Vettius Apaga- 
tus, the celebrated Roman who suifered at Lyons for the faith of 
Christ. They both took special care of the education of their 
son, and, when he arrived at a proper age, proposed to have him 
married to the daughter of a respectable senator. The Saint, who 
had taken a resolution to consecrate himself to God, withdrew 
privately from his father's house to the monastery of Cournon, 
near the city of Auvergne, and earnestly prayed to be admitted 
there amongst the monks ; and having soon after obtained the 
consent of his parents, he with joy renounced all worldly vanities 
to embrace religious poverty. Here his eminent virtues distin- 
guished him in a particular manner, and recommended him to 
Quintianus, Bishop of Auvergne, who promoted him to holy 
orders. The bishop dying in 527, St. Gal was appointed to succeed 
him, and in this new character his humility, charity, and zeal were 
conspicuous; above all, his patience in bearing injuries. Being 
once struck on the head by a brutal man, he discovered not the 



Christ. 



\ 



JULY 1.— ST. GAL, BISHOP. 




July 2.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 295 




least emotion of anger or resentment, and by this meekness dis- 
armed the savage of his rage. At another time, Evodius, who 
from a senator became a priest, having so far forgotten himself as 
to treat him in the most insulting manner, the Saint, without 
making the least reply, arose meekly from his seat and went to 
visit the churches of the city. Evodius was so touched by this 
conduct that he cast himself at the Saint's feet, in the middle of the 
street, and asked his pardon. From this time, they both lived on 
terms of the most cordial friendship. St. Gal was favored with 
the gift of miracles, and died about the year 553. 



JULY 2.— THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

HE angel Gabriel, in the mystery of the Annunciation, in- 
formed the Mother of God that her cousin Elizabeth had 
miraculously conceived, and was then" pregnant with a son 
who was to be the precursor of the Messiah. The Blessed Virgin 
out of humility concealed the wonderful dignity to which she 
was raised by the incarnation of the Son of God in her womb, 
but, in the transport of her holy joy and gratitude, determined she 
would go to congratulate the mother of the Baptist. " Mary there- 
fore arose," saith St. Luke, " and with haste went into the hilly 




296 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 2. 



country into a city of Judea, and, entering into the house of 
Zachary, saluted Elizabeth." What a blessing did the presence of 
the God-man bring to this house, the first which He honored in 
His humanity with His visit ! But Mary is the instrument and 
means by which He imparts to it His divine benediction, to show 
us that she is a channel through which He delights to com- 
municate to us His graces, and to encourage us to ask them of Him 
through her intercession. At the voice of the Mother of God, but 
by the power and grace of her divine Son in her womb, Elizabeth 
was filled with the Holy Ghost, and the Infant in her womb con- 
ceived so great a joy as to leap and exult. At the same time, 
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost, and by His infused 
light she understood the great mystery of the Incarnation which 
God had wrought in Mary, whom humility prevented from dis- 
closing it even to a Saint, and an intimate friend. In raptures of 




astonishment, Elizabeth pronounced her blessed above all other 
women, and cried out, " Whence is this to me that the mother of 
my Lord should come tome?" Mary, hearing her own praise, 
sunk the lower in the abyss of her nothingness, and in the trans- 
port of her humility, and melting in an ecstasy of love and grati- 
tude, burst into that admirable canticle, the Magnificat. Mary 
stayed with her cousin almost three month after which she re- 
turned to Nazareth. 



July 3.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



297 



Reflection. — Whilst with the Church we praise God for the 
mercies and wonders which He wrought in this mystery, we ought 
to apply ourselves to the imitation of the virtues of which Mary 
sets us a perfect example. From her we ought particularly to 
learn the lessons by which we shall sanctify our visits and con- 
versation, actions which are to so many Christians the sources of 
innumerable dangers and sins. 



JULY 3.— ST. HELIODORUS, BISHOP. 

fHIS Saint was born at Dalmatia, St. Jerome's native country, 
and soon sought out that great Doctor, in order not only to 
follow his advice in matters relating to Christian perfection, 
but also to profit by his deep learning. The life of a recluse pos- 
sessed peculiar attractions for him, but to enter a monastery it 




would be necessary to leave his spiritual master and director, and 
such a sacrifice he was not prepared to make. He remained in 
the world, though not of it, and, following the example of the holy 
anchorites, passed his time in prayer and devout reading. He ac- 
companied St. Jerome to the East, but the desire to revisit his 
native land, and to see his parents once more, drew him back to 
Dalmatia, although St. Jerome tried to persuade him to remain. 



298 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 4. 



He promised to return as soon as he had fulfilled the duty he 
owed his parents. In the meantime, finding his absence protracted, 
and fearing that the love of family and attachment to worldly 
things might lure him from his vocation, St. Jerome wrote him an 
earnest letter exhorting him to break entirely with the world, and 
to consecrate himself to the service of God. But the Lord, who 
disposes all things, had another mission for His servant. After the 
death of his mother, Heliodorus went to Italy, where he soon be- 
came noted for his eminent piety. He was made Bishop of Altino, 
and became one of the most distinguished prelates of an age fruit- 
ful in great men. He died about the year 290. 



JULY 4.— ST. BERTHA, WIDOW, ABBESS. 

(tFd)ERTHA was the daughter of Count Rigobert and Ursana, 
,tK? related to one of the kings of Kent in England. In the 
twentieth year of her age, she was married to Sigefroi, by 
whom she had five daughters, two of whom, Gertrude and Deotila, 
were Saints. After her husband's death, she put on the veil in the 




nunnery which she had built at Blangy in Artois, a little distance 
from Hesdin. Her daughters, Gertrude and Deotila, followed her 
example. She was persecuted by Roger, or Rotgar, who endeavored 



July 5.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



299 



to asperse her with King Thierri III , to revenge his being refused 
Gertrude in marriage. But this prince, convinced of the inno- 
cence of Bertha, then abbess over her nunnery, gave her a kind 
reception and took her under his protection. On her return to 
Blangy, Bertha finished her nunnery and caused three churches 
to be built, one in honor of St. Omer, another she called after St. 
Vaast, and the third in honor of St. Martin of Tours. And then, 
after establishing a regular observance in her community, she left 
St. Deotila abbess in her stead, and shut herself in a cell, to pass 
the remainder of her days in prayer. She died about the year 725. 
A great part of her relics are kept at Blangy. 

JULY 5.— ST. PETER OF LUXEMBURG 

"SpETER OF LUXEMBURG, descended both by his father 
j]!^ and mother from the noblest families in Europe, was born 
in Lorraine, in the year 1369. When but a schoolboy, twelve 
years of age, he went to London as a hostage for his brother, the 
Count of St. Pol, who had been taken prisoner. The English 




were so won by Peter's holy example that they released him at the 
end of the year, taking his word for the ransom. Richard II. now 
invited him to remain at the English court ; but Peter returned to 



300 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 6. 



Paris, determined to have no master but Christ. At the early age 
of fifteen, he was appointed, on account of his prudence and sanc- 
tity, Bishop of Metz, and made his public entry into his see bare- 
foot and riding an ass. He governed his diocese with all the zeal 
and prudence of maturity, and divided his revenues in three parts 
— for the Church, the poor, and his household. His charities often 
left him personally destitute, and he had but twentypence left 
when he died. Created Cardinal of St. George, his austerities in 
the midst of a court were so severe that he was ordered to moder- 
ate thern. Peter replied, " I shall always be an unprofitable 
servant, but I can at least obey." Ten months after his promo- 
tion, he fell sick of a fever, and lingered for some time in a sinking 
condition, his holiness increasing as he drew near his end. St. 
Peter, it was believed, never stained his soul by mortal sin ; yet, as 
he grew in grace, his holy hatred of self became more and more 
intense. At length, when he had received the last Sacraments, he 
forced his attendants each in turn to scourge him for his faults, 
and then lay silent till he died. But God was pleased to glorify 
His servant. Among other miracles is the following : On July 
5th, 1432, a child about twelve years old was killed by falling from 
a high tower, in the palace of Avignon, upon a sharp rock. The 
father, distracted with grief, picked up the scattered pieces of the 
skull and brains, and carried them in a sack, with the mutilated 
body of his son, to St. Peter's shrine, and with many tears besought 
the Saint's intercession. After a while, the child returned to life, 
and was placed upon the altar for all to witness. In honor of this 
miracle, the city of Avignon chose St. Peter as its patron Saint. 
He died a.d. 1387, aged eighteen years. 

Reflection.— St. Peter teaches us how, by self-denial, rank, 
riches, the highest dignities, and all this world can give, may serve 
to make a Saint. 

JULY 6.— ST. GOAR, PRIEST. 

\§SjT. GOAR was born of an illustrious family, at Aquitaine. 
yS) From his youth he was noted for his earnest piety, and, having 
been raised to sacred orders, he converted many sinners by the 
fervor of his preaching and the force of his example. Wishing 
to serve God entirely unknown to the world, he went over into 
Germany, and, settling in the neighborhood of Trier, he shut him- 
self up in his cell, and arrived at such an eminent degree of sanc- 
tity as to be esteemed the oracle and miracle of the whole country. 



July 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



30I 




Sigebert, King of Austrasia, learning of the sanctity of Goar, 
wished to have him made Bishop of Metz, and for that purpose 
summoned him to court. The Saint, fearing the responsibilities of 
the office, prayed that he might be excused. He was seized with a 
fever, and died in 575. 



ST. PALLADIUS, BISHOP, APOSTLE OF THE SCOTS. 

HE name of Palladius shows this Saint to have been a 
Roman, and most authors agree that he was deacon of the 
Church of Rome. At least St. Prosper, in his chronicle, in- 
forms us that when Agricola, a noted Pelagian, had corrupted the 
churches of Britain by introducing that pestilential heresy, Pope 
Celestine, at the instance of Palladius the deacon, in 429, sent 
thither St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, in quality of his legate, 
who, having ejected the heretics, brought back the Britons to the 
Catholic faith. In 431 Pope Celestine sent Palladius, the first 
bishop, to the Scots then believing in Christ. The Irish writers of 
the lives of St. Patrick say that St. Palladius had preached in Ire- 
land a little before St. Patrick, but that he was soon banished by 
the King of Leinster, and returned to North Britain, where he 
had first opened his mission. There seems to be no doubt that he 
was sent to the whole nation of the Scots, several colonies of whom 




3°2 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 7. 



had passed from Ireland into North Britain, and possessed them- 
selves of part of the country, since called Scotland. After St. 
Palladius had left Ireland, he arrived among the Scots in North 
Britain, according to St. Prosper, in the consulate of Bassus and 
Antiochus, in the year of Christ 431. He preached there with 
great zeal, and formed a considerable Church. The Scottish histo- 
rians tell us that the faith was planted in North Britain about the 
year 200, in the time of King Donald, when Victor was Pope of 
Rome. But they all acknowledge that Palladius was the first 
bishop in that country, and style him their first apostle. The Saint 
died at Fordun, fifteen miles from Aberdeen, about the year 450. 

Reflection. — St. Palladius surmounted every obstacle which a 
fierce nation had opposed to the establishment of the kingdom of 
Jesus Christ. Ought not our hearts to be impressed with the most 
lively sentiments of love and gratitude to our merciful God for 
having raised up such great and zealous men, by whose ministry 
the light of true faith has been conveyed to us ? 

JULY 7.— ST. PANTAENUS, FATHER OF THE CHURCH. 

HIS learned father and apostolic man flourished in the second 
century. He was by birth a Sicilian, by profession a Stoic 
philosopher. His esteem for virtue led him into an acquaint- 
ance with the Christians, and being charmed with the innocence 
and sanctity of their conversation, he opened his eyes to the truth. 
He studied the Holy Scriptures under the disciples of the apostles, 
and his thirst after sacred learning brought him to Alexandria, in 
Egypt, where the disciples of St. Mark had instituted a celebrated 
school of the Christian doctrine. Pantaenus sought not to display 
his talents in that great mart of literature and commerce ; but his 
great progress in sacred learning was after some time discovered, 
and he was drawn out of that obscurity in which his humility 
sought to bury itself. Being placed at the head of the Christian 
school some time before the year 179, by his learning and excellent 
manner of teaching he raised its reputation above all the schools 
of the philosophers, and the lessons which he read, and which 
were gathered from the flowers of the prophets and apostles, con- 
veyed light and knowledge into the minds of all his hearers. The 
Indians who traded at Alexandria entreated him to pay their coun- 
try a visit, whereupon he forsook his school and went to preach the 
Gospel to the Eastern nations. St. Pantaenus found some seeds of 





the faith already sown in the Indies, and a book of the Gospel of 
St. Matthew in Hebrew, which St. Bartholomew had carried thither. 
He brought it back with him to Alexandria, whither he returned 
after he had zealously employed some years in instructing the In- 
dians in the faith. St. Pantsenus continued to teach in private till 
about the year 216, when he closed a noble and excellent life by a 
happy death. 

Reflection. — " Have a care that none lead you astray by a false 
philosophy," says St. Paul, for philosophy without religion is a 
vain thing. 



JULY 8.— ST. ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL. 

LIZABETH was born in 127 1. She was daughter of Pedro 
III. of Arragon, being named after her aunt, St. Elizabeth 
of Hungary. At twelve years of age, she was given in mar- 
riage to Denis, King of Portugal, and from a holy child became a 
saintly wife. She heard Mass and recited the Divine Office daily, 
but her devotions were arranged with such prudence that they in- 
terfered with no duty of her state. She prepared for her frequent 
communions by severe austerities, fasting thrice a week, and by 
heroic w T orks of charity. She was several times called on to make 
peace between her husband and her son Alphonso, who had taken 




304 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 8. 



up arms against him. Her husband tried her much, both by his un- 
founded jealousy and by his infidelity to herself. A slander affect- 
ing Elizabeth and one of her pages made the king determine to slay 
the youth, and he told a lime-burner to cast into his kiln the first 
page who should arrive with a royal message. On the day fixed 
the page was sent ; but the boy, who was in the habit of hearing 
Mass daily, stopped on his way to do so. The king, in suspense, 
sent a second page, the very originator of the calumny, who, com- 
ing first to the kiln, was at once cast into the furnace and burned. 
Shortly after, the first page arrived from the church, and took back to 
the king the lime-burner's reply that his orders had been fulfilled. 




Thus hearing Mass saved the page's life and proved the queen's 
innocence. Her patience, and the wonderful sweetness with which 
she even cherished the children of her rivals, completely won the 
king from his evil ways, and he became a devoted husband and a 
truly Christian king. She built many charitable institutions and 
religious houses, among others a convent of Poor Clares. After 
her husband's death, she wished to enter their order; but being 
dissuaded by her people, who could not do without her, she took 
the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis, and spent the rest of 
lier life in redoubled austerities and alms-giving. She died at the 
:age of sixty-five, while in the act of making peace between her 
children. 



July 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



\ 



305 



Reflection. — In the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar, St. Elizabeth 
daily found strength to bear with sweetness suspicion and cruelty . 
and by that same Holy Sacrifice her innocence was proved. What 
su'ccor do we forfeit by neglect of daily Mass ! 




JULY 9.— ST. EPHREM, DEACON. 



T. EPHREM is the light and glory of the Syriac Church. A 
mere youth, he entered on the religious life at Nisibis, his 
native place. Long years of retirement taught him the 
science of the Saints, and then God called him to Edessa, there 




to teach what he had learned so well. He defended the faith 
against heresies, in books which have made him known as the 
Prophet of the Syrians. Crowds hung upon his words. Tears 
used to stop his voice when he preached. He trembled and made 
his hearers tremble at the thought of God's judgments ; but he 
found in compunction and humility the way to peace, and he 
rested with unshaken confidence in the mercy of our Blessed Lord. 
" I am setting out," he says, speaking of his own death, " I am set- 
ting out on a journey hard and dangerous. Thee, O Son of God, 
I have taken for my Viaticum. When I am hungry, I will feed on 
Thee. The infernal fire will not venture near me, for it cannot 




306 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July io. 



bear the fragrance of Thy Body and Thy Blood." His hymns 
won the hearts of the people, drove out the hymns of the Gnostic 
heretics, and gained for him the title which he bears in the Syriac 
Liturgy to this day — "the Harp of the Holy Ghost." Passionate 
as he was by nature, from the time he entered religion no one ever 
saw him angry. Abounding in labors till the last, he toiled for 
the suffering poor at Edessa in the famine of 378, and there lay 
down to die in extreme old age. What was the secret of success 
so various and so complete ? Humility, which made him distrust 
himself and trust God. Till his death, he wept for the slight sins 
committed in the thoughtlessness of boyhood. He refused the 
dignity of the priesthood. " I," he told St. Basil, whom he went 
to see at the bidding of the Holy Spirit, " I am that Ephrem who 
have wandered from the path of heaven." Then bursting into 
tears, he cried out, " O my father, have pity on a sinful wretch, and 
lead me on the narrow way." 

Reflection. — Humility is the path which leads to abiding 
peace and brings us near to the consolations of God. 

JULY 10.— THE SEVEN BROTHERS, MARTYRS, AND 
ST. FELICITAS, THEIR MOTHER. 



HE illustrious martyrdom of these Saints happened at Rome, 



under the emperor Antoninus. The seven brothers were the 



sons of St. Felicitas, a noble, pious, Christian widow in Rome, 
who, after the death of her husband, served God in a state of con- 
tinency and employed herself wholly in prayer, fasting, and works 
of charity. By the public and edifying example of this lady and 
her whole family, many idolaters were moved to renounce the 
worship of their false gods, and to embrace the faith of Christ. 
This excited the anger of the heathen priests, who complained to 
the emperor that the boldness with which Felicitas publicly prac- 
tised the Christian religion drew many from the worship of the 
immortal gods, who were the guardians and protectors of the em- 
pire, and that, in order to appease these false gods, it was necessary 
to compel this lady and her children to sacrifice to them. Publius, 
the prefect of Rome, caused the mother and her sons to be appre- 
hended and brought before him, and, addressing her, said, " Take 
pity on your children, Felicitas ; they are in the bloom of youth, 
and may aspire to the greatest honors and preferments." The 
holy mother answered, " Your pity is really impiety, and the com- 




July io.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



307 



passion to which you exhort me would make me the most cruel of 
mothers." Then turning herself towards her children, she said to 
them, " My sons, look up to heaven, where Jesus Christ with His 
Saints expects you. Be faithful in His love, and fight courageously 
for your souls." Publius, being exasperated at this behavior, 
commanded her to be cruelly buffeted ; he then called the chil- 
dren to him one after another, and used many artful speeches, 
mingling promises with threats to induce them to adore the gods. 
His arguments and threats were equally in vain, and the brothers 
were condemned to be scourged. After being whipped, they 




were remanded to prison, and the prefect, despairing to over- 
come their resolution, laid the whole process before the emperor. 
Antoninus gave an order that they should be sent to different 
judges, and be condemned to different deaths. Januarius was 
scourged to death with whips loaded with plummets of lead. 
The two next, Felix and Philip, were beaten with clubs till 
they expired. Sylvanus, the fourth, was thrown headlong down a 
steep precipice. The three youngest, Alexander, Vitalis, and 
Martialis, were beheaded, and the same sentence was executed 
upon the mother four months after. 

Reflection— What afflictions do parents daily meet with from 
the disorders into which their children fall through their own 



3 o8 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 1 1 . 



bad example or neglect ! Let them imitate the earnestness of 
St. Felicitas in forming to perfect virtue the tender souls which 
God hath committed to their charge, and with this Saint they 
will have the greatest of all comforts in them, and will by His 
grace count as many Saints in their family as they are blessed 
with children. 

JULY ii.— ST. JAMES, BISHOP. 

HIS eminent Saint and glorious Doctor of the Syriac Church 
was a native of Nisibis, in Mesopotamia. In his youth, 
entering the world, he trembled at the sight of its vices and 
the slippery path of its pleasures, and he thought it the safer part 
to strengthen himself in retirement, that he might afterward be 
the better able to stand his ground in the field. He accordingly 
chose the highest mountain for his abode, sheltering himself in a 
cave in the winter, and the rest of the year living in the woods, 
continually exposed to the open air. Notwithstanding his desire 
to live unknown to men, he was discovered, and many were not 
afraid to climb the rugged rocks that they might recommend 
themselves to his prayers and receive the comfort of his spiritual 
advice. He was favored with the gifts of prophecy and miracles 
in an uncommon measure. One day, as he was travelling, he was 
accosted by a gang of beggars, with the view of extorting money 
from him under pretence of burying their companion, who lay 
stretched on the ground as if he were dead. The holy man gave 
them what they asked, and "offering up supplications to God as 
for a soul departed, he prayed that his Divine Majesty would 
pardon him the sins he had committed whilst he lived, and that 
he would admit him into the company of the Saints." As soon 
as the Saint was gone by, the beggars, calling upon their com- 
panion to rise and take his share of the booty, were surprised to 
find him really dead. Seized with sudden fear and grief, they 
shrieked in the utmost consternation, and immediately ran after 
the man of God, cast themselves at his feet, confessed the cheat, 
begged forgiveness, and besought him by his prayers to restore 
their unhappy companion to life, which the Saint did. The 
most famous miracle of our Saint was that by which he protected 
his native city from the barbarians. Sapor II., the haughty 
king of Persia, besieged Nisibis with the whole strength of 
his empire, whilst our Saint was Bishop. The Bishop would not 
pray for the destruction of any one, but he implored the Divine 




July ii.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



309 



Mercy that the city might be delivered from the calamities of so 
long a siege. Afterward, going to the top of a high tower, 
and turning his face towards the enemy, and seeing the pro- 
digious multitude of men and beasts which covered the whole 
country, he said, " Lord, Thou art able by the weakest means to 
humble the pride of Thy enemies ; defeat these multitudes by an 
army of gnats." God heard the humble prayer of His servant. 
Scarce had the Saint spoken those words, w T hen whole clouds of 
gnats and flies came pouring down upon the Persians, got into 
the elephants' trunks and the horses' ears and nostrils, which made 




them chafe and foam, throw their riders, and put the whole army 
into confusion and disorder. A famine and pestilence, which fol- 
lowed, carried off a great part of the army ; and Sapor, after lying 
above three months before the place, set fire to all his own en- 
gines of war, and was forced to abandon the siege and return home 
with the loss of twenty thousand men. Sapor received a third foil 
under the walls of Nisibis, in 359, upon which he turned his arms 
against Amidus, took that strong city, and put the garrison and 
the greatest part of the inhabitants to the sword. The citizens of 
Nisibis attributed their preservation to the intercession of their 
glorious patron, St. James, although he had already gone to his 
reward. He died in 350. 



3io 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 12. 



JULY 12.— ST. JOHN GUALBERT. 

^@T. JOHN GUALBERT was born at Florence, a.d. 999. Fol- 
kS) lowing the profession of arms at that troubled period, he be- 
came involved in a blood-feud with a near relation. One 
Good Friday, as he was riding into Florence accompanied by armed 
men, he encountered his enemy in a place where neither could 
avoid the other. John would have slain him ; but his adversary, 
who was totally unprepared to fight, fell upon his knees with his 
arms stretched out in the form of a cross, and implored him, for 
the sake of our Lord's Holy Passion, to spare his life. St. John 




said to his enemy, " I cannot refuse what you ask in Christ's name. 
I grant you your life, and I give you my friendship. Pray that 
God may forgive me my sin." Grace triumphed. A humble and 
•changed man, he entered the Church of St. Miniato, which was 
near ; and whilst he prayed, the figure of our crucified Lord, be- 
fore which he was kneeling, bowed its head towards him as if to 
ratify his pardon. Abandoning the world, he gave himself up to 
prayer and penance in the Benedictine Order. Later he was led 
to found the congregation called of Vallombrosa, from the shady 
valley a few miles from Florence, where he established his first 
monastery. Once the enemies of the Saint came to his convent of 
St. Salvi, plundered it, and set fire to it, and having treated the 



July 13.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



monks with ignominy, beat them and wounded them. St. John 
rejoiced. " Now," he said, "you are true monks. Would that I 
myself had had the honor of being with you when the soldiers 
came, that I might have had a share in the glory of your crowns !" 
He fought manfully against simony, and in many ways promoted 
the interest of the faith in Italy. After a life of great austerity, 
he died whilst the angels were singing round his bed, July 12th, 
1073. 

Reflection. — The heroic act which merited for St. John Gual- 
bert his conversion was the forgiveness of his enemy. Let us imi- 
tate him in this virtue, resolving never to revenge ourselves in 
deed, in word, or in thought. 

^JULY 13.— ST. EUGENIUS, BISHOP. 

HE episcopal see of Carthage had remained vacant twenty- 
four years, when, in 481, Huneric permitted the Catholics on 
certain conditions to choose one who should fill it. The peo- 
ple, impatient to enjoy the comfort of a pastor, pitched upon Eu- 
genius, a citizen of Carthage, eminent for his learning, zeal, piety, 
and prudence. His charities to the distressed were excessive, and 
he refused himself every thing that he might give all to the poor. 
His virtue gained him the respect and esteem even of the Arians ; 
but at length envy and blind zeal got the ascendant in their 
breasts, and the king sent him an order never to sit on the episco- 
pal throne, preach to the people, or admit into his chapel any 
Vandals, among whom several were Catholics. The Saint boldly 
answered that the laws of God commanded him not to shut the 
door of His church to any that desired to serve Him in it. Huneric, 
enraged at this answer, persecuted the Catholics in various ways. 
Many nuns were so cruelly tortured that they died on the rack. 
Great numbers of bishops, priests, deacons, and eminent Catholic 
laymen were banished to a desert, filled with scorpions and veno- 
mous serpents. The people followed their bishops and priests with 
lighted tapers in their hands, and mothers carried their little babes 
in their arms and laid them at the feet of the confessors, all crying 
out with tears, " Going yourselves to your crowns, to whom do you 
leave us ? Who will baptize our children ? Who will impart to us 
the benefit of penance, and discharge us from the bonds of sin by the 
favor of reconciliation and pardon ? Who will bury us with sol- 
emn supplications at our death ? By whom will the Divine Sacrifice 




312 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 14. 




be made?" The Bishop Eugenius was spared in the first storm, 
but afterwards was carried into the uninhabited desert country in 
the province of Tripolis, and committed to the guard of Antony, 
an inhuman Arian bishop, who treated him with the utmost bar- 
barity. Gontamund, who succeeded Huneric, recalled our Saint 
to Carthage, opened the Catholic churches, and allowed all the 
exiled priests to return. After reigning twelve years, Gontamund 
died, and his brother Thrasimund was called to the crown. Under 
this prince, St Eugenius was again banished, and died in exile, on 
the 13th of July, 505, in a monastery which he built and governed, 
near Albi. 

Reflection. — " Alms shall be a great confidence before the 
Most High God to them that give it. Water quencheth a flaming 
fire, and alms resisteth sin." 



JULY 14.— ST. BONAVENTURE. 

^^^2 ANCTITY and learning raised Bonaventure to the Church's 
JkS) highest honors, and from a child he was the companion of 
Saints. Yet at heart he was ever the poor Franciscan friar, 
and practised and taught humility and mortification. St. Francis 
gave him his name ; for, having miraculously cured him of a 
mortal sickness, he prophetically exclaimed of the child, " O bona 



July 



14.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



313 




ventura !" — good luck. He is known also as the " Seraphic Doc- 
tor," from the fervor of divine love which breathes in his writings. 
He was the friend of St. Thomas Aquinas, who asked him one day 
whence he drew his great learning. He replied by pointing to his 
crucifix. At another time, St. Thomas found him in ecstasy while 
writing the life of St. Francis, and exclaimed, "Let us leave a 
Saint to write of a Saint." They received the Doctor's cap to- 
gether. He was the guest and adviser of St. Louis, and the 
director of St. Isabella, the king's sister. At the age of thirty- 
five, he was made general of his Order ; and only escaped another 
dignity, the Archbishopric of York, by dint of tears and en- 
treaties. Gregory X. appointed him Cardinal Bishop of Albano. 
When the Saint heard of the Pope's resolve to create him a Car- 
dinal, he quietly made his escape from Italy. But Gregory sent 
him a summons to return to Rome. On his way, he stopped to rest 
himself at a convent of his Order near Florence; and there two 
Papal messengers, sent to meet him with the Cardinal's hat, found 
him washing the dishes. The Saint desired them to hang the hat 
on a bush that was near, and take a walk in the garden until he 
had finished what he was about. Then taking up the hat with un- 
feigned sorrow, he joined the messengers, and paid them the re- 
spect due to their character. He sat at the Pontiff's right hand, 
and spoke first at the Council of Lyons. His piety and eloquence 



3H 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 15. 



won over the Greeks to Catholic union, and then his strength 
failed. He died while the Council was sitting, and was buried by 
the assembled bishops, a.d. 1274. 

Reflection. — "The fear of God," says St. Bonaventure, "for- 
bids a man to give his heart to transitory things, which are the 
true seeds of sin." 



v 



JULY 15.— ST. HENRY, EMPEROR. 




j ENRY, Duke of Bavaria, saw in a vision his guardian, St. 
Wolfgang, pointing to the words " after six." This moved 
him to prepare for death, and for six years he continued to 
watch and pray, when, at the end of the sixth year, he found the 
warning verified in his election as emperor. Thus trained in the fear 
of God, he ascended the throne with but one thought — to reign 
for His greater glory. The pagan Slaves were then despoiling the 
empire. Henry attacked them with a small force ; but angels and 
Saints were seen leading his troops, and the heathen fled in despair. 
Poland and Bohemia, Moravia and Burgundy, were in turn an- 




nexed to his kingdom, Pannonia and Hungary won to the Church. 
With the faith secured in Germany, Henry passed into Italv, drove 
out the Antipope Gregory, brought Benedict VIII. back to Rome, 



July 16.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



315 



and was crowned in St. Peter's by that Pontiff, in 1014. It was 
Henry's custom, on arriving in any town, to spend his first night 
in watching in some church dedicated to our Blessed Lady. As 
he was thus praying in St. Mary Major's, the first night of his ar- 
rival in Rome, he " saw the Sovereign and Eternal Priest Christ 
Jesus" enter to say Mass. SS. Laurence and Vincent assisted as 
deacon and sub-deacon. Saints innumerable filled the church, and 
angels sang in the choir. After the Gospel, an angel was sent by 
our Lady to give Henry the book to kiss. Touching him lightly on 
the thigh, as the angel did to Jacob, he said, " Accept this sign of 
God's love for your chastity and justice ;" and from that time the 
emperor always was lame. Like holy David, Henry employed the 
fruits of his conquests in the service of the temple. The forests 
and mines of the empire, the best that his treasury could produce, 
were consecrated to the sanctuary. Stately cathedrals, noble mon- 
asteries, churches innumerable, enlightened and sanctified the once 
heathen lands. In 1022, Henry lay on his bed of death. He gave 
back to her parents his wife, St. Cunegunda, "a virgin still, as a 
virgin he had received her from Christ," and surrendered his own 
pure soul to God. 

Reflection. — St. Henry deprived himself of many things to 
enrich the house of God. We clothe ourselves in purple and fine 
linen, and leave Jesus in poverty and neglect. 



S) home when he was but twelve years of age, to live as a her- 



mit in the hollow trunk of a tree, whence he was known as 
Simon of the Stock. Here he passed twenty years in penance and 
prayer, and learned from our Lady that he was to join an Order 
not then known in England. He waited in patience till the White 
Friars came, and then entered the Order of our Lady of Mount 
Carmel. His great holiness moved his brethren in the general 
chapter held at Aylesford, near Rochester, in 1245, to choose him 
prior-general of the Order. In the many persecutions raised 
against the new religious, Simon went with filial confidence to the 
Blessed Mother of God. As he knelt in prayer in the White 
Friars' convent at Cambridge, on July 16th, 1251, she appeared be- 
fore him and presented him with the scapular, in assurance of her 
protection. The devotion to the blessed habit spread quickly 



JULY 16.— ST. SIMON STOCK. 




England, and left his 



316 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [July 1 6. 




throughout the Christian world. Pope after Pope enriched it 
with indulgences, and miracles innumerable put their seal upon 
its efficacy. The first of them was worked at Winchester on a 
man dying in despair, who at once asked for the Sacraments, when 
the scapular was laid upon him by St. Simon Stock. In the year 
1636, M. de Guge, a cornet in a cavalry regiment, was mortally 
wounded at the engagement of Tehin, a bullet having lodged near 
his heart. He was then in a state of grievous sin, but had time 
left him to make his confession, and with his own hands wrote his 
last testament. When this was done, the surgeon probed his wound, 
and the bullet was found to have driven his scapular into his heart. 
On its being withdrawn, he presently expired, making profound 
acts of gratitude to the Blessed Virgin, who had prolonged his 
life miraculously, and thus preserved him from eternal death. St. 
Simon Stock died at Bordeaux, a.d. 1265. 

Reflection. — To enjoy the privileges of the scapular, it is suf- 
ficient that it be received lawfully and worn devoutly. How, 
then, can any one fail to profit by a devotion so easy, so simple, 
and so wonderfully blessed ? " He that shall overcome, shall thus 
be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name 
out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before My 
Father and before His angels." (Apoc. 3:5.) 



July 17.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



317 




JULY 17.— ST. ALEXIUS. 



y(5^T. ALEXIUS was the only son of parents pre-eminent among 
V^S) the Roman nobles for virtue, birth, and wealth. On his 
wedding-night, by God's special inspiration, he secretly 
quitted Rome, and journeying to Edessa, in the far East, gave 
away all that he had brought with him, content thenceforth to live 
on alms at the gate of our Lady's Church in that city. It came to 
pass that the servants of St. Alexius, whom his father sent in search 
of him, arrived at Edessa, and seeing him among the poor at the 
gate of our Lady's Church, gave him an alms, not recognizing 
him. Whereupon the man of God, rejoicing, said, " I thank Thee, 
O Lord, who hast called me and granted that I should receive for 
Thy name's sake an alms from my own slaves. Deign to fulfil in 
me the work Thou hast begun." After seventeen years, when his 
sanctity was miraculously manifested by the Blessed Virgin's 
image, he once more sought obscurity by flight. On his way to 
Tarsus, contrary winds drove his ship to Rome. There no one 
recognized in the wan and tattered mendicant the heir of Rome's 
noblest house ; not even his sorrowing parents, who had vainly 
sent throughout the world in search of him. From his father's 
charity he begged a mean corner of his palace as a shelter, and 
the leavings of his table as food. Thus he spent seventeen years, 



3i« 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July i8» 



bearing patiently the mockery and ill-usage of his own slaves, 
and witnessing daily the inconsolable grief of his spouse and 
parents. At last, when death had ended this cruel martyrdom, they 
learned too late, from a writing in his own hand, who it was that 
they had- unknowingly sheltered. God bore testimony to His 
servant's sanctity by many miracles. He died early in the fifth 



Reflection. — We must always be ready to sacrifice our dearest 
and best natural affections in obedience to the call of our 
Heavenly Father. " Call none your father upon earth, for one is 
your Father in Heaven" (Matt. 23 : 9). Oar Lord has taught us 
this not by words only, but by His own example and by that of 
His Saints. 

JULY 18.— ST. CAMILLUS OF LELLIS. 



HE early years of Camilius gave no sign of sanctity. At the 



age of nineteen, he took service with his father, an Italian 



noble, against the Turks, and after four years' hard cam- 
paigning found himself, through his violent temper, reckless 
habits, and inveterate passion for gambling, a discharged sol- 
dier, and in such straitened circumstances that he was obliged 
to work as a laborer on a Capuchin convent which was then 
building. A few words from a Capuchin friar brought about 
his conversion, and he resolved to become a religious. Thrice 
he entered the Capuchin novitiate, but each time an obstinate 
wound in his leg forced him to leave. He repaired to Rome 
for medical treatment, and there took St. Philip as his confessor, 
and entered the hospital of St. Giacomo, of which he became in 
time the superintendent. The carelessness of the paid chaplains 
and nurses towards the suffering patients now inspired him with 
the thought of founding a congregation to minister to their wants. 
With this end he was ordained priest, and in 1586 his community 
of the Servants of the Sick was confirmed by the Pope. Its useful- 
ness was soon felt, not only in hospitals, but in private houses. 
Summoned at every hour of the day and night, the devotion of 
Camilius never grew cold. With a woman's tenderness, he 
attended to the needs of his patients. He wept with them, con- 
soled them, and prayed with them. He knew miraculously the 
state of their souls ; and St. Philip saw angels whispering to two 
Servants of the Sick who were consoling a dying person. One 



century. 




JULY 19.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 319 




day, a sick man said to the Saint, " Father, may I beg you to make 
up my bed? it is very hard." Camillus replied, "God forgive 
you, brother! You beg me ! Don't you know yet that you are to 
command me, for I am your servant and slave?" " Would to 
God," he would cry, " that in the hour of my death one sigh or 
one blessing of these poor creatures might fall upon me!" His 
prayer was heard. He was granted the same consolations in his 
last hour which he had so often procured for others. In the year 
1614 he died with the full use of his faculties, after two weeks' 
saintly preparation, as the priest was reciting the words of the 
ritual, " May Jesus Christ appear to thee with a mild and joyful 
countenance !" 

Reflection. — St. Camillus venerated the sick as living images 
of Christ, and by ministering to them in this spirit did penance 
for the sins of his youth, led a life precious in merit, and from a 
violent and quarrelsome soldier became a gentle and tender 
Saint. 

JULY 19.— ST. VINCENT OF PAUL. 

T. VINCENT was born a.d. 1576. In after-years, when 
adviser of the Queen and oracle of the Church in France, 
he loved to recount how, in his youth, he had guarded his 
fathers pigs. Soon after his ordination, he was captured by 




320 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 19. 



Corsairs, and carried into Barbary. He converted his renegade 
master, and escaped with him to France. Appointed chaplain- 
general of the galleys of France, his tender charity brought hope 
into those prisons where hitherto despair had reigned. A mother 
mourned her imprisoned son. Vincent put on his chains and 
took his place at the oar, and gave him to his mother. His char- 
ity embraced the poor, young and old, provinces desolated by 
civil war, Christians enslaved by the infidel. The poor man, 
ignorant and degraded, was to him the- image of Him who became 
as " a leper and no man." " Turn the medal," he said, "and you 




then will see Jesus Christ." He went through the streets of Paris 
at night, seeking the children who were left there to die. Once 
robbers rushed upon him, thinking he carried a treasure, but when 
he opened his cloak, they recognized him and his burden, and fell 
.at his feet. Not only was St. Vincent the saviour of the poor, 
but also of the rich, for he taught them to do works of mercy. 
When the work for the foundlings was in danger of failing 
from want of funds, he assembled the ladies of the Asso- 
ciation of Charity. He bade his most fervent daughters be pres- 
ent to give the spur to the others. Then he said, " Compassion 
.and charity have made you adopt these little creatures as your 
children. You have been their mothers according to grace, when 
their own mothers abandoned them. Cease to be their mothers, 



July 20.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



321 



that you may become their judges ; their life and death are in your 
hands. I shall now take your votes : it is time to pronounce sen- 
tence." The tears of the assembly were his only answer, and the 
work was continued. The Society of St. Vincent, the Priests of 
the Mission, and 25,000 Sisters of Charity still comfort the afflicted 
with the charity of St. Vincent of Paul. He died a.d. 1660. 

Reflection. — Most people who profess piety ask advice of 
directors about their prayers and spiritual exercises. Few inquire 
whether they are not in danger of damnation from neglect of 
works of charity. 

JULY 20.— ST. MARGARET, VIRGIN AND MARTYR. 

CCORDING to the ancient Martyrologies, St. Margaret 
suffered at Antioch in Pisidia, in the last general persecu- 
tion. She is said to have been instructed in the faith by a 
Christian nurse, to have been prosecuted by her own father, a 
pagan priest, and, after many torments, to have gloriously fin- 




ished her martyrdom by the sword. From the East, her veneration 
was exceedingly propagated in England, France, and Germany, in 
the eleventh century, during the holy wars. Her body is now 
kept at Monte-Fiascone, in Tuscany. 




322 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 21. 



ST. JEROME EMILIANI. 

T. JEROME EMILIANI was a member of one of the patri- 
cian families of Venice, and, like many other Saints, in early 
life a soldier. He was appointed governor of a fortress 
among the mountains of Treviso, and whilst bravely defending 
his post, was made prisoner by the enemy. In the misery of his 
dungeon, he invoked the great Mother of God, and promised, if 
she would set him free, to lead a new and a better life. Our Lady 
appeared, broke his fetters, and led him forth through the midst 
of his enemies. At Treviso he hung up his chains at her altar, 
dedicated himself to her service, and on reaching his home at 
Venice, devoted himself to a life of active charity. His special 
love was for the deserted orphan children whom, in the times of 
the plague and famine, he found wandering in the streets. He 
took them home, clothed and fed them, and taught them the Chris- 
tian truths. From Venice he passed to Padua and Verona, and 
in a few years had founded orphanages through Northern Italy. 
Some pious clerics and laymen, who had been his fellow-workers, 
fixed their abode in one of these establishments, and devoted 
themselves to the cause of education. The Saint drew up for 
them a rule of life, and thus was founded the Congregation, which 
still exists, of the Clerks Regular of Somascha. St. Jerome died 
February 8th, 1537, of an illness which he had caught in visiting 
the sick. 

Reflection. — Let us learn from St. Jerome to exert ourselves 
in behalf of the many hundred children whose souls are perishing 
around us for want of some one to show them the way to heaven. 




JULY 21.— ST. VICTOR, MARTYR. 

tHE Emperor Maximian, reeking with the blood of the The- 
bsean legion and many other martyrs, arrived at Marseilles, 
where the Church then flourished. The tyrant breathed 
here nothing but slaughter and fury, and his coming filled the 
Christians with fear and alarm. In this general consternation, 
Victor, a Christian officer in the troops, went about in the night- 
time from house to house, visiting the faithful and inspiring 
them with contempt of a temporal death and the love of eternal 
life. He was surprised in this, and brought before the prefects 
Asterius and Eutychius, who exhorted him not to lose the fruit 



July 21.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



323 



of all his services and the favor of his prince for the worship 
of a dead man, as they called Jesus Christ. He answered that 
he renounced those recompenses if he could not enjoy them with- 
out being unfaithful to Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who 
vouchsafed to become man for our salvation, but who raised 
Himself from the dead, and reigns with the Father, being God 
equally with him. The whole court heard him with shouts of 
rage. Victor was bound hand and foot and dragged through 
the streets of the city, exposed to the blows and insults of the 
populace. He was brought back bruised and bloody to the 




tribunal of the prefects, who, thinking his resolution must have 
been weakened by his sufferings, pressed him again to adore 
their gods. But the martyr, filled with the Holy Ghost, ex- 
pressed his respect for the emperor and his contempt for their 
gods. He was then hoisted on the rack and tortured a long 
time, until, the tormentors being at last weary, the prefect ordered 
him to be taken down and thrown into a dark dungeon. At 
midnight, God visited him by his angels ; the prison was filled 
with a light brighter than that of the sun, and the martyr sung 
with the angels the praises of God. Three soldiers who guarded 
the prison, seeing this light, cast themselves at the martyr's feet, 
asked his pardon, and desired baptism. Victor instructed them as 
well as time would permit, sent for priests the same night, and, 



324 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 22. 



going with them to the seaside, had them baptized, and returned 
with them again to his prison. The next morning, Maximian was 
informed of the conversion of the guards, and, in a transport of 
rage, sent officers to bring them all four before him. The three 
soldiers persevered in the confession of Jesus Christ, and, by the 
emperor's orders, were forthwith beheaded. Victor, after having 
been exposed to the insults of the whole city and been beaten 
with clubs and scourged with leather thongs, was carried back to 
prison, where he continued three days, recommending to God his 
martyrdom with many tears. After that term, the emperor called 
him again before his tribunal, and commanded the martyr to 
offer incense to a statue of Jupiter. Victor went up to the 
profane altar, and by a kick of his foot threw it down. The 
emperor ordered the foot to be forthwith chopped off, which the 
Saint suffered with great joy, offering to God these first-fruits of 
his body. A few moments after, the emperor condemned him to 
be put under the grindstone of a hand-mill and crushed to death. 
The executioners turned the wheel, and when part of his body 
was bruised and crushed, the mill broke down. The Saint still 
breathed a little, but his head was immediately ordered to be cut 
off. His and the other three bodies were thrown into the sea, but, 
being cast ashore, were buried by the Christians in a grotto hewn 
out of a rock. 



F the earlier life of Mary Magdalen, we know only that she 



degradation, she raised her eyes to Jesus with sorrow, hope, 
and love. All covered with shame, she came in where Jesus was 
at meat, and knelt behind Him. She said not a word, but bathed 
His feet with her tears, wiped them with the hair of her head, 
kissed them in humility, and at their touch her sins and her stain 
were gone. Then she poured on them the costly unguent pre- 
pared for far other uses ; and His own divine lips rolled away her 
reproach, spoke her absolution, and bade her go in peace. Thence- 
forward she ministered to Jesus, sat at His feet, and heard His 
words. She was one of the family " whom Jesus so loved " that 
He raised her brother Lazarus from the dead. Once again, on the 
eve of His Passion, she brought the precious ointment, and, now 
purified and beloved, poured it on His head, and the whole house 
of God is still filled with the fragrance of her anointing. She 



JULY 22.— ST. MARY MAGDALEN. 




From the depth of her 



July 23.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



325 




stood with our Lady and St. John at the foot of the Cross, the 
representative of the many who have had much forgiven. To her 
first, after His Blessed Mother, and through her to His Apostles, 
our Lord gave the certainty of His Resurrection ; and to her first 
He made Himself known, calling her by her name, because she 
was His. When the faithful were scattered by persecution, the 
family of Bethany found refuge in Provence. The cave in which 
St. Mary lived for thirty years is still seen, and the chapel on the 
mountain-top, in which she was caught up daily, like St. Paul, to 
" visions and revelations of the Lord." When her end drew near, 
she was borne to a spot still marked by a " sacred pillar," where 
the holy Bishop Maximin awaited her; and when she had received 
her Lord, she peacefully fell asleep in death. 

Reflection. — " Compunction of heart," says St. Bernard, " is 
a treasure infinitely to be desired, and an unspeakable gladness to 
the heart. It is healing to the soul ; it is remission of sins ; it brings 
back again the Holy Spirit into the humble and loving heart." 

JULY 23.— ST. APOLLINARIS, BISHOP AND MARTYR. 

T. APOLLINARIS was the first Bishop of Ravenna; he sat 
twenty years, and was crowned with martyrdom in the reign 
of Vespasian. He was a disciple of St. Peter, and made by 
him Bishop of Ravenna. St. Peter Chrysologus, the most illus- 




326 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 23. 



trious among his successors, has left us a sermon in honor of our 
Saint, in which he often styles him a martyr ; but adds, that 
though he frequently suffered for the faith, and ardently desired 
to lay down his life for Christ, yet God preserved him a long 
time to His Church, and did not allow the persecutors to take 
away his life. So he seems to have been a martyr only by the 
torments he endured for Christ, which he survived at least some 
days. His body lay first at Classis, four miles from Ravenna., 
still a kind of suburb to that city, and its seaport till it was 
choked up by the sands. In the year 549, his relics were removed 




into a more secret vault in the same church. St. Fortunatus ex- 
horted his friends to make pilgrimages to the tomb, and St. Greg- 
ory the Great ordered parties in doubtful suits at law to be sworn 
before it. Pope Honorius built a church under the name of 
Apollinaris in Rome, about the year 630. It occurs in all martyr- 
ologies, and the high veneration which the Church paid early to 
his memory is a sufficient testimony of his eminent sanctity and 
apostolic spirit. 

Reflection. — The virtue of the Saints was true and heroic, be- 
cause humble and proof against all trials. Persevere in your 
good resolutions; it is not enough to begin well, you must so 
continue to the end. 



July 24.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



327 



JULY 24.— ST. CHRISTINA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR. 

^^T. CHRISTINA was the daughter of a rich and powerful 
magistrate named Urbain. Her father, who was deep in the 
practices of heathenism, had a number of golden idols, which 
our Saint destroyed and distributed the pieces among the poor. 
Infuriated by this act, Urbain became the persecutor of his daugh- 
ter ; he had her whipped with rods and then thrown into a dun- 
geon. Christina remained unshaken in her faith. Her tormentor 
then had her body torn by iron hooks, and fastened her to a rack 
beneath which a fire was kindled. But God watched over His 




servant and turned the flames upon the lookers-on. Christina 
was next seized, a heavy stone tied about her neck, and she 
was thrown into the lake of Bolsena, but she was saved by an 
angel, and outlived her father, who died of spite. Later, this 
martyr suffered the most inhuman torments under the judge who 
succeeded her father, and finally was thrown into a burning fur- 
nace, where she remained, unhurt, for five days. By the power of 
Christ, she overcame the serpents among which she was thrown ; 
then her tongue was cut out, and afterwards, being pierced with 
arrows, she gained the martyr's crown at Tyro, a city which for- 
merly stood on an island in the lake of Bolsena, in Italy, but was 
long since swallowed up by the waters. Her relics are now at 
Palermo, in Sicily. 



328 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 25. 




JULY 25.— ST. JAMES, APOSTLE. 

tMONG the twelve, three were chosen as the familiar com- 
panions of our Blessed Lord, and of these James was one. 
He alone, with Peter and John, was admitted to the house 
of Jairus when the dead maiden was raised to life. They alone 
were taken up to the high mountain apart, and saw the face of 
Jesus shining as the sun, and His garments white as snow ; and 
these three alone witnessed the fearful agony in Gethsemane. 
What was it that won James a place among the favorite three ? 
Faith, burning, impetuous, and outspoken, but which needed puri- 
fying before the "Son of Thunder" could proclaim the gospel of 
peace. It was James who demanded fire from heaven to consume 
the inhospitable Samaritans, and who sought the place of honor 
by Christ in His kingdom. Yet our Lord, in rebuking his pre- 
sumption, prophesied his faithfulness to death. When St. 
James was brought before King Herod Agrippa, his fearless 
confession of Jesus crucified so moved the public prosecutor that 
he declared himself a Christian on the spot. Accused and accuser 
were hurried off together to execution, and on the road the latter 
begged pardon of the Saint. The Apostle had long since forgiven 
him, but hesitated for a moment whether publicly to accept as a 
brother one still unbaptized. God quickly recalled to him the 



July 26.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



329 



Church's faith, that the blood of martyrdom supplies for every 
sacrament, and, falling on his companion's neck, he embraced him, 
with the words, " Peace be with thee!" Together then they knelt 
for the sword, and together received the crown. 

Reflection. — We must all desire a place in the kingdom of 
our Father ; but can we drink the chalice which He holds out to 
each? Possumns, we must say with St. James — "We can" — but 
only in the strength of Him who has drunk it first for us. 



JULY 26.— ST. ANNE. ' 

\G? T. ANNE was the spouse of St. Joachim, and was chosen by 
V«S) God to be the mother of Mary, His own Blessed Mother on 
earth. They were both of the royal house of David, and 
their lives were wholly occupied in prayer and good works. One 
thing only was wanting to their union — they were childless, and 
this was held as a bitter misfortune among the Jews. At length, 
when Anne was an aged woman, Mary was born, the fruit rather 




of grace than of nature, and the child more of God than of man. 
With the birth of Mary the aged Anne began a new life : she 
watched her every movement with reverent tenderness, and felt 
herself hourly sanctified by the presence of her immaculate child. 



33Q 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 27. 



But she had vowed her daughter to God, to God Mary had conse- 
crated herself again, and to Him Anne gave her back. Mary was 
three years old when Anne and Joachim led her up the Temple 
steps, saw her pass by herself into the inner sanctuary, and then 
saw her no more. Thus was Anne left childless in her lone old 
age, and deprived of her purest earthly joy just when she needed 
it most. She humbly adored the Divine Will, and began again to 
watch and pray, till God called her to unending rest with the Fa- 
ther and the Spouse of Mary in the home of Mary's Child. 

Reflection. — St. Anne is glorious among the Saints, not only 
as the mother of Mary, but because she gave Mary to God. Learn 
from her to reverence a divine vocation as the highest privilege, 
and to sacrifice every natural tie, however holy, at the call of God. 

JULY 27.— ST. PANTALEON, MARTYR. 

T. PANTALEON was physician to the Emperor Galerius 
Maximianus, and a Christian, but, deceived by often hear- 
ing the false maxims of the world applauded, was unhap- 
pily seduced into an apostasy. But a zealous Christian called 

i 




Hermolaus awakened his conscience to a sense of his guilt, 
and brought him again into the fold of the Church. The peni- 
tent ardently wished to expiate his crime by martyrdom ; and to 



July 28.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



331 



prepare himself for the conflict, when Diocletian's bloody per- 
secution broke out at Nicomedia, in 303, he distributed all his pos- 
sessions among the poor. Not long after this action, he was 
taken up, and in his house were also apprehended Hermolaus, 
Hermippus, and Hermocrates. After suffering many torments, 
they were all condemned to lose their heads. St. Pantaleon suf- 
fered the day after the rest. His relics were translated to Con- 
stantinople, and there kept with great honor. The greatest part 
of them are now shown in the abbey of St. Denys near Paris, but 
his head is at Lyons. 

Reflection. — " With the elect thou shalt be elect, and with the 
perverse wilt be perverted." 

JULY 28.— SS. NAZARIUS AND CELSUS, MARTYRS. 

\§^T. NAZARIUS'S father was a heathen, and held a consider- 
V«S) able post in the Roman army. His mother, Perpetua, was a 
zealous Christian, and was instructed by St. Peter, or his 
disciples, in the most perfect maxims of our holy faith. Nazarius 




embraced it with so much ardor that he copied in his life all the 
great virtues he saw in his teachers ; and out of zeal for the salva- 
tion of others, he left Rome, his native city, and preached the faith 
in many places with a fervor and disinterestedness becoming a 



332 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 29. 



disciple of the Apostles. Arriving at Milan, he was there behead- 
ed for the faith, together with Celsus, a youth whom he carried 
with him to assist him in his travels. These martyrs suffered soon 
after Nero had raised the first persecution. Their bodies were 
buried separately in a garden without the city, where they were 
discovered and taken up by St. Ambrose, in 395. In the tomb 
of St. Nazarius, a vial of the Saint's blood was found as fresh 
and red as if it had been spilt that day. The faithful stained 
handkerchiefs with some drops, and also formed a certain paste 
with it, a portion of which St. Ambrose sent to St. Gaudentius, 
Bishop of Brescia. St. Ambrose conveyed the bodies of the two 
martyrs into the new church of the apostles, which he had just 
built. A woman was delivered of an evil spirit in their presence. 
St. Ambrose sent some of these relics to St. Paulinus of Nola, 
who received them, with great respect, as a most valuable present, 
as he testifies. 

Reflection. — The martyrs died as the outcasts of the world, 
but are crowned by God with immortal honor. The glory of the 
world is false and transitory, and an empty bubble or shadow, but 
that of virtue is true, solid, and permanent, even in the eyes of 
men. 



I^T. JOHN tells us that " Jesus loved Martha and Mary and La- 



zarus," and yet but few glimpses are vouchsafed us of them. 



First, the sisters are set before us with a word. Martha 
received Jesus into her house, and was busy in outward, loving, 
lavish service, while Mary sat in silence at the feet she had bathed 
with her tears. Then, their brother is ill, and they send to Jesus, 
" Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick." And in His own time the 
Lord came, and they go out to meet Him ; and then follows that 
scene of unutterable tenderness and of sublimity unsurpassed: 
the silent waiting of Mary ; Martha strong in faith, but realizing 
so vividly, with her practical turn of mind, the fact of death, and 
hesitating : " Canst Thou show Thy wonders in the grave ?" And 
then once again, on the eve of His Passion, we see Jesus at 
Bethany. Martha, true to her character, is serving; Mary, as at 
first, pours the precious ointment, in adoration and love, on His 
divine head. And then we find the tomb of St. Martha, at Taras- 
con, in Provence. When the storm of persecution came, the 
family of Bethany, with a few companions, were put into a boat, 



JULY 29.— ST. MARTHA, VIRGIN. 




July 30.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



333 




without oars or sail, and borne to the coast of France. St. Mary's 
tomb is at St. Baume ; St. Lazarus is venerated as the founder of 
the Church of Marseilles ; and the memory of the virtues and 
labors of St. Martha is still fragrant at Avignon and Tarascon. 



Reflection. — When Martha received Jesus into her house, she 
was naturally busy in preparations for such a Guest. Mary sat 
at His feet, intent alone on listening to His gracious words. Her 
sister thought that the time required other service than this, and 
asked our Lord to bid Mary help in serving. Once again Jesus 
spoke in defence of Mary. " Martha, Martha," He said, " thou art 
lovingly anxious about many things ; be not over-eager ; do thy 
chosen work with recollectedness. Judge not Mary. Hers is the 
good part, the one only thing really necessary. Thine will be 
taken away, that something better be given thee." The life of ac- 
tion ceases when the body is laid down ; but the life of contempla- 
tion endures and is perfected in heaven. 



JULY 30.— ST. GERMANUS, BISHOP. 

jTLN his youth, Germanus gave little sign of sanctity. He was 01 
JUT noble birth, and at first practised the law at Rome. After a 
time, the emperor placed him high in the army. But his one 
passion was the chase. He was so carried away as even to retain 



334 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[July 30. 



in his sports the superstitions of the pagan huntsmen. Yet it was 
revealed to the Bishop of Auxerre that Germanus would be his 
successor, and he gave him the tonsure almost by main force. 
Forthwith Germanus became another man, and, making over his 
lands to the Church, adopted a life of humble penance. At that 
time the Pelagian heresy was laying waste England, and Ger- 
manus was chosen by the reigning Pontiff to rescue the Britons 
from the snare of Satan. With St. Lupus he preached in the fields 
and highways throughout the land. At last, near Verulam, he 
met the heretics face to face, and overcame them utterly with the 




Catholic and Roman faith. He ascribed this triumph to the inter- 
cession of St. Alban, and offered public thanks at his shrine. 
Towards the end of his stay, his old skill in arms won over the 
Picts and Scots the complete but bloodless " Alleluia" victory, so 
called because the newly-baptized Britons, led by the Saint, routed 
the enemy with the Paschal cry. Germanus visited England a 
second time with St. Severus. He died a.d. 448, while interceding 
with the emperor for the people of Brittany. 

Reflection. — " Hold the form of sound words, which thou hast 
heard of me in faith, and in the love which is in Christ Jesus." 
(2 Tim. 1 : 13.) 



JULY 3.1'.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 335 

V JULY 31.— ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA. 

>§ijT. IGNATIUS was born at Loyola in Spain, in the year 1491. 
VkS) He served his king as a courtier and a soldier till his thirtieth 
year. At that age, being laid low by a wound, he received 
the call of divine grace to leave the world. He embraced poverty 
and humiliation, that he might become more like to Christ, and 
won others to join him in the service of God. Prompted by their 
love for Jesus Christ, Ignatius and his companions made a vow to> 
go to the Holy Land, but war broke out, and prevented the exe- 
cution of their project. Then they turned to the Vicar of Jesus 




Christ, and placed themselves under his obedience. This was the 
beginning of the Society of Jesus. Our Lord, promised St. Igna- 
tius that the precious heritage of His Passion should never fail 
his Society, a heritage of contradictions and persecutions. St. 
Ignatius was cast into prison at Salamanca, on a suspicion of 
heresy. To a friend who expressed sympathy with him on ac- 
count of his imprisonment, he replied, " It is a sign that you have 
but little love of Christ in your heart, or you would not deem it so 
hard a fate to be in chains for His sake. I declare to you that all 
Salamanca does not contain as many fetters, manacles, and chains 
as I long to wear for the love of Jesus Christ." St. Ignatius went 
to his crown on the 31st July, 1556. 



336 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August I. 



Reflection. — Ask St. Ignatius to obtain for you the grace to 
desire ardently the greater glory of God, even though it may cost 
you much suffering and humiliation. 

AUGUST i.— ST. PETER'S CHAINS. 

EROD AGRIPPA, King of the Jews, having put to death 
St. James the Great in the year 44, in order to gain the 
affection and applause of his people, caused St. Peter, 
the prince of the sacred college, to be cast into prison. It was his 
intention to put him publicly to death after. Easter. The whole 




Church at Jerusalem put up its prayers to God for the deliver- 
ance of the chief pastor of His whole flock, and God favorably 
heard them. The king took all precautions possible to prevent 
the escape of his prisoner. St. Peter lay fast asleep, on the very 
night before the day intended for his execution, when it pleased 
God to deliver him out of the hands of his enemies. He was 
guarded by sixteen soldiers, four of whom always kept sentry in 
their turns : two in the same dungeon with him, and two at the 
g-ate. He was fastened to the ground by two chains, and slept 
Ibetween the two soldiers. In the middle of the night, a bright 
light shone in the prison, and an angel appeared near him, and, 




August 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



337 



striking him on the side, awaked him out of his sleep, and bade 
him instantly arise, gird his coat about him, put on his sandals 
and his cloak, and follow him. The Apostle did so, for the 
chains had dropped off from his hands. Following his guide, he 
passed after him through the first and second wards or watches, 
and through the iron gate which led into the city, which opened 
to them of its own accord. The angel conducted him through 
one street, then, suddenly disappearing, left him to seek some 
asylum. The Apostle went directly to the house of Mary the 
mother of John, surnamed Mark, where several disciples were 
met together, and were sending up their prayers to heaven for his 
deliverance. As he stood knocking without, a young woman, 
knowing Peter's voice, ran in and informed the company 
that he was at the door ; they concluded it must be his guar- 
dian angel, sent by God upon some extraordinary account, 
until, being let in, he related to them the whole manner of his 
miraculous escape ; and having enjoined them to give notice 
thereof to St. James and the rest of the brethren, he withdrew to 
a place of more retirement and security, carrying, wherever he 
went, the heavenly blessing and life. 

Reflection. — This miracle affords a confirmation of the divine 
promise, " If two of you shall consent upon earth concerning any- 
thing whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done to them by my 
Father who is in heaven." 

AUGUST 2.— ST. STEPHEN, POPE AND MARTYR. 

T. STEPHEN was by birth a Roman, and, being promoted 
to holy orders, was made archdeacon under the holy Popes 
St. Cornelius and St. Lucius. The latter having suffered 
martyrdom, St. Stephen was chosen to succeed him, and was 
elected Pope on the 3d of May, 253. The controversy concerning 
the rebaptization of heretics gave St. Stephen much trouble. It is 
the teaching of the Catholic Church, that baptism given in the name 
of the three persons of the Blessed Trinity is valid, though it be 
conferred by a heretic. St. Stephen suffered himself patiently to be 
traduced as a favorer of heresy in approving heretical baptism, not 
doubting but those great men who by mistaken zeal were led 
astray would, when the heat of the dispute had subsided, calmly 
open their eyes to the truth. Thus by his zeal he preserved the 
integrity of faith, and by his toleration and forbearance saved 




338 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 2. 




many souls. The persecutions becoming violent, he assembled 
the faithful together in the underground tombs of the martyrs, to 
celebrate Mass and to exhort them to remain true to Christ. On 
the 2d of August, 257, while seated in his pontifical chair, he was 
beheaded by the satellites of the emperor; and the chair is still 
shown, stained with his blood. 

ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI. 

T. ALPHONSUS was born of noble parents, near Naples, 
in 1696. >His spiritual training was entrusted to the Fathers 
of the Oratory in that city, and from his boyhood Alphonsus 
was known as a most devout Brother of the Little Oratory. At 
the early age of sixteen he was made doctor in law, and he threw 
himself into this career with ardor and success. A mistake, by 
which he lost an important cause, showed him the vanity of 
human fame, and determined him to labor only for the glory of 
God. He entered the priesthood, devoting himself to the most 
neglected souls; and to carry on this work he founded later the 
missionary Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. At the 
age of sixty-six he became Bishop of St. Agatha, and undertook 
the reform of his diocese with the zeal of a Saint. He made a 
vow never to lose time, and, though his life was spent in prayer 




August 3.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



339 



and work, he composed a vast number of books, filled with such 
science, unction, and wisdom that he has been declared one of 
the Doctors of the Church. St. Alphonsus wrote his first book 
at the age of forty-nine, and in his eighty-third year had published 
about sixty volumes, when his director forbade him to write more. 
Very many of these books were written in the half-hours snatched 
from his labors as missionary, religious superior, and Bishop, or 
in the midst of continual bodily and mental sufferings. With his 
left hand he would hold a piece of marble against his aching head 
while his right hand wrote. Yet he counted no time wasted 
which was spent in charity. He did not refuse to hold a long 
correspondence with a simple soldier who asked his advice, or to 
play the harpsichord while he taught his novices to sing spiritual 
canticles. He lived in evil times, and met with many persecutions 
and disappointments. For his last seven years he was prevented 
by constant sickness from offering the Adorable Sacrifice ; but he 
received Holy Communion daily, and his love for Jesus Christ 
and his trust in Mary's prayers sustained him to the end. He 
died in 1787, in his ninety-first year. 

Reflection. — Let us do with all our heart the duty of each 
day, leaving the result to God, as well as the care of the future. 

AUGUST 3.— THE FINDING OF ST. STEPHEN'S RELICS. 

HIS second festival, in honor of the holy protomartyr St. 
Stephen, was instituted by the Church on the occasion of the 
discovery of his precious remains. His body lay long con- 
cealed, under the ruins of an old tomb, in a place twenty miles 
from Jerusalem, called Caphargamala, where stood a church which 
was served by a venerable priest named Lucian. In the year 415, 
on Friday, the 3d of December, about nine o'clock at night, Lu- 
cian was sleeping in his bed in the baptistery, where he commonly 
lay in order to guard the sacred vessels of the church. Being 
half awake, he saw a tall, comely old man of a venerable aspect, 
who approached Lucian, and, calling him thrice by his name, bid 
him go to Jerusalem and tell Bishop John to come and open the 
tombs in which his remains and those of certain other servants of 
Christ lay, that through their means God might open to many 
the gates of His clemency. This vision was repeated twice. 
After the second time, Lucian went to Jerusalem and laid the 
whole affair before Bishop John, who bade him go and search 




340 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 3. 



for the relics, which, the Bishop concluded, would be found 
under a heap of small stones which lay in a field near his 
church. In digging up the earth here, three coffins or chests 
were found. Lucian sent immediately to acquaint Bishop John 
with this. He was then at the Council of Diospolis, and, taking 
along with him Eutonius, Bishop of Sebaste, and Eleutherius, 
Bishop of Jericho, came to the place. Upon the opening of St. 
Stephen's coffin, the earth shook, and there came out of the coffin 
such an agreeable odor that no one remembered to have ever 
smelled any thing like it. There was a vast multitude of people as- 




sembled in that place, among whom were many persons afflicted 
with divers distempers, of whom seventy-three recovered their 
health upon the spot. They kissed the holy relics, and then shut 
them up. The Bishop consented to leave a small portion of them 
at Caphargamala ; the rest were carried in the coffin, with singing 
of psalms and hymns, to the Church of Sion at Jerusalem. The 
translation was performed on the 26th of December, on which day 
the Church hath ever since honored the memory of St. Stephen, 
commemorating the discovery of his relics on the 3d of August 
probably on account of the dedication of some church in his 
honor. 

Reflection— St. Austin, speaking of the miracles of St. Ste- 



August 4.] lives OF the saints. 341 

phen, addresses himself to his flock as follows : " Let us so desire 
to obtain temporal blessings by his intercession that we may 
merit, in imitating him, those which are eternal." 



V AUGUST 4.— ST. DOMINIC. 



T. DOMINIC was born in Spain, a.d. 1170. As a student, 
he sold his books to feed the poor in a famine, and offered 
himself in ransom for a slave. At the age of twentv-five. he 




became superior of the Canons Regular of Osma, and accom- 
panied his Bishop to France. There his heart was well-nigh 
broken by the ravages of the Albigensian heresy, and his life 
was henceforth devoted to the conversion of heretics and the 
defence of the faith. For this end, he established his threefold 
religious Order. The convent for nuns was founded first, to rescue 
young girls from heresy and crime. Then a company of apostolic 
men gathered around him, and became the Order of Friar Preach- 
ers. Lastly came the Tertiaries, persons of both sexes living in 
the world. God blessed the new Order, and France, Italy, Spain, 
and England welcomed the Preaching Friars. Our Lady took 
them under her special protection, and whispered to St. Dominic 
as he preached. It was in 1208, while St. Dominic knelt in the 



342 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 5. 



little chapel of Notre Dame de la Prouille, and implored the great 
Mother of God to save the Church, that our Lady appeared to 
him, gave him the Rosary, and bade him go forth and preach. 
Beads in hand, he revived the courage of the Catholic troops, 
led them to victory against overwhelming numbers, and finally 
crushed the heresy. His nights were spent in prayer; and, 
though pure as a virgin, thrice before morning broke, he scourged 
himself to blood. His words rescued countless souls, and three 
times raised the dead to life. At length, on August 6th, 122 1, at 
the age of fifty-one, he gave up his soul to God. 

Reflection. — " God has never," said St. Dominic, " refused me 
what I have asked;" and he has left us the Rosary, that we may 
learn, with Mary's help, to pray easily and simply in the same 
holy trust. 



AUGUST 5.— THE DEDICATION OF ST. MARY AD NIVES. 

HERE are in Rome three patriarchal churches, in which the 
Pope officiates on different festivals. These are the Basilics of 
St. John Lateran, St. Peter's on the Vatican Hill, and St. Mary 




Major. This last is so called because it is, both in antiquity and 
dignity, the first church in Rome among those that are dedicated 
to God in honor of the Virgin Mary. The name of the Liberian 



August 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



343 



Basilic was given it because it was founded in the time of Pope 
Liberius, in the fourth century ; it was consecrated, under the title 
of the Virgin Mary, by Sixtus III., about the year 435. It is also 
called St. Mary ad Nives, or at the snow, from a popular tradition 
that the Mother of God chose this place for a church under her 
invocation by a miraculous snow that fell upon this spot in sum- 
mer, and by a vision in which she appeared to a patrician named 
John, who munificently founded and endowed this church in the 
pontificate of Liberius. The same Basilic has sometimes been 
known by the name of St. Mary ad Froesepe, from the holy crib or 
manger of Bethlehem, in which Christ was laid at his birth. It 
resembles an ordinary manger, is kept in a case of massive silver, 
and in it lies an image of a little child, also of silver. On Christ- 
mas Day the holy manger is taken out of the case, and exposed. 
It is kept in a sumptuous subterraneous chapel in this church. 

Reflection. — To render our supplications the more efficacious, 
we ought to unite them in spirit to those of all fervent penitents 
and devout souls, in invoking this advocate for sinners. 




AUGUST 6.— THE TRANSFIGURATION OF OUR LORD. 

UR Divine Redeemer, being in Galilee about a year before 
His Sacred Passion, took with Him St. Peter and the two 
sons of Zebedee, SS. James and John, and led them to 
a retired mountain. Tradition assures us that this was Mount 
Tabor, which is exceedingly high and beautiful, and was anciently 
covered with green trees and shrubs, and was very fruitful. It 
rises something like a sugar-loaf, in a vast plain in the middle of 
Galilee. This was the place in which the Man-God appeared in 
His glory. Whilst Jesus prayed, He suffered that glory which was 
always due to His sacred humility, and of which, for our sake, 
He deprived it to diffuse a ray over His whole body. His face 
was altered and shone as the sun, and His garments became 
white as snow. Moses and Elias were seen by the three Apostles 
in His company on this occasion, and were heard discoursing with 
Him of the death which He was to suffer in Jerusalem. The 
three Apostles were wonderfully delighted with this glorious 
vision, and St. Peter cried out to Christ, " Lord, it is good for us 
to be here. Let us make three tents : one for Thee, one for Moses, 
and one for Elias." Whilst St. Peter was speaking, there came, 
on a sudden, a bright shining cloud from heaven, an emblem of 



344 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 7. 



the presence of God's majesty, and from out of this cloud was 
heard a voice which said, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am 
well pleased ; hear ye Him." The Apostles that were present, upon 
hearing this voice, were seized with a sudden fear, and fell upon 
the ground; but Jesus, going to them, touched them, and bade 
them to rise. They immediately did so, and saw no one but Jesus 
standing in his ordinary state. This vision happened in the night. 
As they went down the mountain early the next morning, Jesus 
bade them not to tell any one what they had seen till he should be 
risen from the dead. 




Reflection. — From the contemplation of this glorious mystery 
we ought to conceive a true idea of future happiness; if this 
once possess our souls, we will think nothing of any difficulties or 
labors we can meet with here, but regard with great indifference 
all the goods and evils of this life, provided we can but secure 
our portion in the kingdom of God's glory. 



AUGUST 7.— ST. CAJETAN. 

^AJETAN was born at Vicenza, in 1480, of pious and noble 
' parents, who dedicated him to our Blessed Lady. From 
childhood he was known as the Saint, and in later years as 
the hunter of souls." A distinguished student, he left his native 



August 7.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



345 



town to seek obscurity in Rome, but was there forced to accept 
office at the court of Julius II, On the death of that Pontiff, he 
returned to Vicenza, and disgusted his relatives by joining the 
Confraternity of St. Jerome, whose members were drawn from the 
lowest classes ; while he spent his fortune in building hospitals, 
and devoted himself to nursing the plague-stricken. To renew 
the lives of the clergy, he instituted the first community of Regular 
Clerks, known as Theatines. They devoted themselves to preach- 
ing, the administration of the Sacraments, and the careful perform- 
ance of the Church's rites and ceremonies. St. Cajetan was the first 




to introduce the Forty Hours' Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, 
as an antidote to the heresy of Calvin. He had a most tender love 
for our Blessed Lady, and his piety was rewarded ; for one 
Christmas eve she placed the Infant Jesus in his arms. When the 
Germans, under the Constable Bourbon, sacked Rome, St. Cajetan 
was barbarously scourged, to extort from him riches which he 
had long before securely stored in heaven. When St. Cajetan was 
on his death-bed, resigned to the will of God, eager for pain to 
satisfy his love, and for death to attain to life, he beheld the 
Mother of God, radiant with splendor and surrounded by minis- 
tering seraphim. In profound veneration, he said, " Lady, bless 
me!" Mary replied, "Cajetan, receive the blessing of my Son, 
and know that I am here as a reward for the sincerity of your love, 



34^ 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 8. 



and to lead you to paradise." She then exhorted him to patience 
in fighting an evil spirit who troubled him, and gave orders to the 
choirs of angels to escort his soul in triumph to heaven. Then, 
turning her countenance full of majesty and sweetness upon him, 
she said, " Cajetan, my Son calls thee. Let us go in peace." 
Worn out with toil and sickness, he went to his reward in 1547. 

Reflection. — Imitate St. Cajetan's devotion to our Blessed 
Lady, by invoking her aid before every work. 

AUGUST 8.— ST. CYRIACUS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MAR- 
TYRS. 

fT. CYRIACUS was a holy deacon at Rome, under the Popes 
Marcellinus and Marcellus. In the persecution of Diocle- 
tian, in 303, he was crowned with a glorious martyrdom in 
that city. With him suffered also Largus and Smaragdus and 
twenty others. Their bodies were first buried near the place of 
their execution, on the Salarian Way, but were soon after removed 
to a farm of the devout Lady Lucina, on the Ostian Road, on the 
eighth day of August. 




Reflection. — To honor the martyrs and duly celebrate their 
festivals, we must learn their spirit and study to imitate them 
according to the circumstances of our state. We must, like them, 



August 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



347 



resist evil, must subdue our passions, suffer afflictions with 
patience, and bear with others without murmuring or complain- 
ing. The cross is the ladder by which we must ascend to heaven. 

BLESSED PETER FAVRE. 

ORN a.d. 1506, of poor Savoyard shepherds, Peter, at his 
earnest request, was sent to school, and in after-years to 
the University of Paris. His college friends were St. Igna- 
tius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier. Ignatius found the young 
man's heart ready for his thoughts of apostolic zeal ; Peter became 
his first companion, and in the year of England's revolt was or- 
dained the first priest of the new Society of Jesus. From that day to 
the close of his life, he was ever in the van of the Church's strug- 
gles with falsehood and sin. Boldly facing heresy in Germany, 
he labored not less diligently to rouse up the dormant faith and 
charity of Catholic courts and Catholic lands. The odor of 
Blessed Peter's virtues drew after him into religion the Duke of 
Gandia, Francis Borgia, and a young student of Nimeguen, Peter 
Canisius, both to become Saints like their master. The Pope, 
Paul III., had chosen Blessed Favre to be his theologian at the 
Council of Trent, and King John III., of Portugal, wished to send 
him as patriarch and apostle into Abyssinia. Sick and worn with 
labor, but obedient unto death, the father hastened back to Rome, 
where his last illness came upon him. He died, in his fortieth 
year, as one would wish to die, in the very arms of his best 
friend and spiritual father, St. Ignatius. 

Reflection. — As the body sinks under fatigue unless sup- 
ported by food, so external works, however holy, wear out the 
soul which is not regularly nourished by prayer. In the most 
crowded day we can make time briefly and secretly to lift our soul 
to God and draw new strength from Him. 

^AUGUST 9.— ST. ROMANUS, MARTYR. 

T. ROMANUS was a soldier in Rome at the time of the mar- 
tyrdom of St. Laurence. Seeing the joy and constancy 
with which that holy martyr suffered his torments, he was 
moved to embrace the faith, and, addressing himself to St. Lau- 
rence, was instructed and baptized by him in prison. Confessing 
aloud what he had done, he was arraigned, condemned, and be- 




348 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [AUGUST 10. 




headed the day before the martyrdom of St. Laurence. Thus he 
arrived at his crown before his guide and master. The body of 
St. Romanus was first buried on the road to Tibur, but his remains 
were translated to Lucca, where they are kept under the high 
altar of a beautiful church which bears his name. 



Reflection. — We are bound to glorify God by our lives, 
and Christ commands that our good works shine before men. 
It was the usual saying of the apostle St. Matthias, " The 
faithful sins if his neighbor sins." Such ought to be the zeal 
of every one to instruct and edify his neighbor by word and 
example. 

AUGUST io.— ST. LAURENCE, MARTYR. 

T. LAURENCE was the chief among the seven deacons of 
the Roman Church. In the year 258, Pope Sixtus was led 
out to die, and St. Laurence stood by, weeping that he 
could not share his fate. "I was your minister," he said, "when 
you consecrated the blood of our Lord ; why do you leave me 
behind now that you are about to shed your own ?" The holy 
Pope comforted him with the words, " Do not weep, my son ; in 
three days you will follow me." This prophecy came true. The 




August io.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



349 



prefect of the city knew the rich offerings which the Christians 
put into the hands of the clergy, and he demanded the treasures of 
the Roman Church from Laurence, their guardian. The Saint 
promised, at the end of three days, to show him riches exceeding 
all the wealth of the empire, and set about collecting the poor, the 
infirm, and the religious who lived by the alms of the faithful. 
He then bade the prefect "see the treasures of the Church." 
Christ, whom Laurence had served in his poor, gave him strength 
in the conflict which ensued. Roasted over a slow fire, he made 
sport of his pains. " I am done enough," he said ; " eat, if you 
will." At length Christ, the Father of the poor, received him into 




eternal habitations. God showed by the glory which shone 
around St. Laurence the value He set upon his love for the 
poor. Prayers innumerable were granted at his tomb ; and he 
continued from his throne in heaven his charity to those in 
need, granting them, as St. Augustine says, "the smaller graces 
which they sought, and leading them to the desire of better 
gifts." 

Reflection. — Our Lord appears before us in the persons of 
the poor. Charity to them is a great sign of predestination. It is 
almost impossible, the holy Fathers assure us, for any one who is 
charitable to the poor for Christ's sake to perish. 



350 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August i i. 




AUGUST ii.— SS. TIBURTIUS AND SUSANNA, MARTYRS. 

GRESTIUS CHROMATIUS was vicar to the prefect of 
Rome, and had condemned several martyrs in the reign of 
Carinus; and in the first years of Diocletian, St. Tranquil- 
linus, being brought before him, assured him that, having been 
afflicted with the gout, he had recovered a perfect state of health 
by being baptized. Chromatins was troubled with the same dis- 
temper, and being convinced by this miracle of the truth of the 
Gospel, sent for a priest, and, receiving the sacrament of bap- 
tism, was freed from that corporal infirmity. Chromatius's son, 
Tiburtius, was ordained subdeacon, and was soon after betrayed 
to the persecutors, condemned to many torments, and at length 
beheaded on the Lavican Road, three miles from Rome, where a 
church was afterward built. His father, Chromatius, retiring into 
the country, lived there concealed, in the fervent practice of all 
Christian virtues. 

St. Susanna was nobly born in Rome, and is said to have 
been niece to Pope Caius. Having made a vow of virginity, she 
refused to marry, on which account she was impeached as a Chris- 
tian, and suffered with heroic constancy a cruel martyrdom. 
St. Susanna suffered towards the beginning of Diocletian's reign, 
about the year 295. 




August 12.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



351 



Reflection. — Sufferings were to the martyrs the most dis- 
tinguishing mercy, extraordinary graces, and sources of the great- 
est crowns and glory. All afflictions which God sends are in like 
manner the greatest mercies and blessings ; they are the most 
precious talents to be improved by us to the increasing of our love 
and affection to God, and the exercise of the most heroic virtues 
of self-denial, patience, humility, resignation, and penance. 

AUGUST 12.— ST. CLARE, ABBESS. 

N Palm Sunday, March 17th, 12 12, the Bishop of Assisi left 
the altar to present a palm to a noble maiden, eighteen 
years of age, whom bashfulness had detained in her place. 
This maiden was St. Clare. Already she had learnt from St. Fran- 
cis to hate the world, and was secretly resolved to live for God 
alone. The same night she escaped, with one companion, to the 
Church of the Portiuncula, where she was met by St. Francis and 
his brethren. At the altar of our Lady, St. Francis cut off her 




hair, clothed her in his habit of penance, a piece of sackcloth, with 
his cord as a girdle. Thus was she espoused to Christ. In a 
miserable house outside Assisi she founded her Order, and was 
joined by her sister, fourteen years of age, and afterwards by her 




352 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 13. 



mother and other noble ladies. They went barefoot, observed 
perpetual abstinence, constant silence, and perfect poverty. 
While the Saracen army of Frederick II. was ravaging the valley 
of Spoleto, a body of infidels advanced to assault St. Clare's con- 
vent, which stood outside Assisi. The Saint caused the Blessed 
Sacrament to be placed in a monstrance, above the gate of the 
monastery facing the enemy, and kneeling before it, prayed, "De- 
liver not to beasts, O Lord, the souls of those who confess to 
Thee," A voice from the Host replied, " My protection will never 
fail you." A sudden panic seized the infidel host, which took to 
flight, and the Saint's convent was spared. During her illness of 
twenty-eight years, the Holy Eucharist was her only support, and 
spinning linen for the altar the one work of her hands. She died 
a.d. 1253, as the Passion was being read, and our Lady and the 
angels conducted her to glory. 

Reflection. — In a luxurious and effeminate age, the daughters 
of St. Clare still bear the noble title of poor, and preach by their 
daily lives the poverty of Jesus Christ. 

AUGUST 13.— ST. RADEGUNDES, QUEEN. 

T. RADEGUNDES was the daughter of a king of Thurin- 
gia who was assassinated by his brother; a war ensuing, 
our Saint, at the age of twelve, was made prisoner and car- 
ried captive by Clotaire, King of Soissons, who had her instructed 
in the Christian religion and baptized. The great mysteries of 
our faith made such an impression on her tender soul that she 
gave herself to God with her whole heart, and desired to conse- 
crate to him her virginity ; she was obliged at last, however, to 
yield to the king's wish that she should become his wife. As a 
great queen, she continued no less an enemy to sloth and vanity 
than she was before, and divided her time chiefly between her 
oratory, the Church, and the care of the poor. She also kept long 
fasts, and during Lent wore a hair-cloth under her rich garments. 
Clotaire was at first pleased with her devotions, and allowed her 
full liberty in them, but afterward used frequently to reproach 
her for her pious exercises, saying he had married a nun rather 
than a queen, who converted his court into a monastery. Seeing 
that Clotaire was inflamed by bad passions, our Saint asked and 
obtained his leave to retire from court. She went to Noyon, and 
was consecrated deaconess by St. Medard. Radegundes first 



August 14.] LIVES OF THE saints. 353 




withdrew to Sais, and some time after she went to Poitiers, and 
there built a great monastery. She had a holy virgin, named 
Agnes, made the first abbess, and paid to her an implicit obedience 
in all things, not reserving to herself the disposal of the least 
thing. King Clotaire, repenting of his evil conduct, wished her 
to return to court, but, through the intercession of St. Germanus 
of Paris, she was allowed to remain in her retirement, where she 
died on the 13th of August, 587. 

AUGUST 14.— ST. EUSEBIUS, PRIEST. 

HE Church celebrates this day the memory of St. Eusebius, 
who opposed the Arians, at Rome, with so much zeal. He 
was imprisoned in his room by order of the Emperor Con- 
stantius, and sanctified his captivity by constant prayer. Another 
Saint of the same name, a priest and martyr, is commemorated on 
this day. In the reign of Diocletian and Maximian, before they 
had published any new edicts against the Christians, Eusebius, a 
holy priest, a man eminently endowed with the spirit of prayer 
and all apostolical virtues, suffered death for the faith, probably 
in Palestine. The Emperor Maximian happening to be in that 
country, complaint was made to Maxentius, president of the prov- 
ince, that Eusebius distinguished himself by his zeal in invoking 



354 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 14. 



and preaching Christ, and the holy man was seized. Maximian 
was by birth a barbarian, and one of the roughest and most brutal 
and savage of all men. Yet the undaunted and modest virtue of 
this stranger, set off by a heavenly grace, struck him with awe. 
He desired to save the servant of Christ, but, like Pilate, would 
not give himself any trouble or hazard incurring the displeasure 
of those whom on all other occasions he despised. Maxentius 
commanded Eusebius to sacrifice to the gods, and on the Saint 
refusing, the president condemned him to be beheaded. Zuse- 
bius, hearing the sentence pronounced, said aloud, " I thank Your 




goodness and praise Your power, O Lord Jesus Christ, that, by 
calling me to the trial of my fidelity, You have treated me as one 
of Yours." He, at that instant, heard a voice from heaven, saying 
to him, " If you had not been found worthy to suffer, you could 
not be admitted into the court of Christ or to the seats of the 
just." Being come to the place of execution, he knelt down, and 
his head was struck off. 

Reflection. — Let us learn, from the example of the Saints, 
courage in the service of God. He calls upon us to endure suf- 
fering of body and of mind, if it is necessary, to prove our fidelity 
to Him ; and He promises to support us by His strength, His 
light, and His heavenly consolation. 



August 15.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



355 



AUGUST 15.-THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN 

MARY. 

N this festival, the Church commemorates the happy depart- 
ure from life of the Blessed Virgin Marv, and her transla- 
tion into the kingdom of her Son, in which she received from 
Him a crown of immortal glory, and a throne above all the other 
Saints and heavenly spirits. After Christ, as the triumphant Con- 
queror of death and hell, ascended into heaven, His blessed Mother 
remained at Jerusalem, persevering in prayer with the disciples, 
till, with them, she had received the Holy Ghost. She lived to 




a very advanced age, but finally paid the common debt of nature, 
none among the children of Adam being exempt from that rigor- 
ous law. But the death of the Saints is rather to be called a 
sweet sleep than death ; much more that of the Queen of Saints, 
who had been exempt from all sin. It is a traditionary pious 
belief, that the body of the Blessed Virgin was raised by God 
soon after her death, and taken up to glory, by a singular privi- 
lege, before the general resurrection of the dead. The Assump- 
tion of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the greatest of all the festivals 
which the Church celebrates in her honor. It is the consum- 
mation of all the other great mysteries by which her life was 
rendered most wonderful ; it is the birthday of her true greatness, 



356 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 16. 



and glory, and the crowning of all the virtues of her whole life, 
which we admire single in her other festivals. 

Reflection. — Whilst we contemplate, in profound sentiments 
of veneration, astonishment, and praise, the glory to which Mary 
is raised by her triumph on this day, we ought, for our own 
advantage, to consider by what means she arrived at this sublime 
degree of honor and happiness, that we may walk in her steps. 
No other way is open to us. The same path which conducted her 
to glory will also lead us thither ; we shall be partners in her 
reward if we copy her virtues. 



^ AUGUST 16.— ST. HYACINTH. 

YACINTH, the glorious apostle of Poland and Russia, was 
born of noble parents in Poland, about the year 1185. In 
1 2 18, being already Canon of Cracow, he accompanied his 
uncle, the Bishop of that place, to Rome. There he met St. 
Dominic, and received the habit of the Friar Preachers from the 
patriarch himself, of whom he became a living copy. So wonder- 




ful was his progress in virtue that within a year Dominic sent 
Mm to preach and plant the Order in Poland, where he founded 
two houses. His apostolic journeys extended over numerous 
regions. Austria, Bohemia, Livonia, the shores of the Black Sea, 



/ 



August 17.] lives OF the saints. 357 

Tartary, and Northern China on the east, and Sweden and Nor- 
way to the west, were evangelized by him, and he is said to have 
visited Scotland. Everywhere multitudes were converted, churches 
and convents were built ; one hundred and twenty thousand 
pagans and infidels were baptized by his hands. He worked 
numerous miracles, and at Cracow raised a dead youth to life. 
He had inherited from St. Dominic a most filial confidence in the 
Mother of God; to her he ascribed his success, and to her aid he 
looked for his salvation. When St. Hyacinth was at Kiev, the 
Tartars sacked the town, but it was only as he finished Mass that 
the Saint heard of the danger. Without waiting to unvest, he 
took the ciborium in his hands, and was leaving the church. As 
he passed by an image of Mary a voice said : " Hyacinth, my son, 
why dost thou leave me behind ? Take me with thee, and leave 
me not to mine enemies." The statue was of heavy alabaster; 
but when Hyacinth took it in his arms, it was light as a reed. 
With the Blessed Sacrament and the image he came to the river 
Dnieper, and walked dryshod over the surface of the waters. On 
the eve of the Assumption, he was warned of his coming death. 
In spite of a wasting fever, he celebrated Mass on the feast, 
and communicated as a dying man. He was anointed at the foot 
of the altar, and died the same day, a.d. 1257. 

Reflection. — St. Hyacinth teaches us to employ every effort 
in the service of God, and to rely for success not on our own 
industry, but on the prayer of His Immaculate Mother. 

AUGUST 17.— ST. LIBERATUS, ABBOT, AND SIX MONKS, 

MARTYRS. 

UNERIC, the Arian Vandal king in Africa, in the seventh 
year of his reign, published fresh edicts against the Catho- 
lics, and ordered their monasteries to be everywhere demol- 
ished. Seven monks, named Liberatus, Boniface, Servus, Rusti- 
cus, Rogatus, Septimus, and Maximus, who lived in a monastery 
near Capsa, in the province of Byzacena, were at that time sum- 
moned to Carthage. They were first tempted with great promises; 
but as they remained constant in the belief of the Trinity, and of 
one baptism, they were loaded with irons and thrown into a dark 
dungeon. The faithful, having bribed the guards, visited the 
Saints day and night, to be instructed by them and mutually to 
encourage one another to suffer for the faith of Christ. The 
king, learning this, commanded them to be more closely confined, 




353 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 17. 



loaded with heavier irons, and tortured with a cruelty never heard 
of till that time. Soon after, he condemned them to be put into 
an old ship and burnt at sea. The martyrs walked cheerfully to 
the shore, contemning the insults of the Arians as they passed 
along. Particular endeavors were used by the persecutors to 
gain Maximus, who was very young ; but God, who makes the 
tongues of children eloquent to praise His name, gave him 
strength to withstand all their efforts, and he boldly told them 
that they should never be able to separate him from his holy 
abbot and brethren, with whom he had borne the labors of a peni- 




tential life for the sake of everlasting glory. An old vessel was 
filled with dry sticks, and the seven martyrs were put on board 
and bound on the wood ; and fire was put to it several times, but 
it went out immediately, and all endeavors to kindle it were in 
vain. The tyrant, in rage and confusion, gave orders that the 
martyrs' brains should be dashed out with oars, which was done, 
and their bodies cast into the sea, which threw them all on 
the shore. The Catholics interred them honorably in the monas- 
tery of Bigua, near the Church of St. Celerinus. They suffered 
in the year 483. 

Reflection. — " Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, 
or a railer, or a coveter of other men's things ; but if as a Christian, 
let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name." 



August 18.] lives of the saints. 359 

\s AUGUST 18.— ST. HELENA, EMPRESS. ST. AGAPETUS, 

MARTYR. 

(Jo 

tT was the pious boast of the city of Colchester, England, for 
many ages, that St. Helena was born within its walls ; and 
though this honor has been disputed, it is certain that she was 
a British princess. She embraced Christianity late in life ; but her 
incomparable faith and piety greatly influenced her son Constan- 
tine, the first Christian emperor, and served to kindle a holy zeal in 
the hearts of the Roman people. Forgetful of her high dignity, 
she delighted to assist at the Divine Office amid the poor ; and 




by her alms-deeds showed herself a mother to the indigent and 
distressed. In her eightieth year, she made a pilgrimage to Jeru- 
salem, with the ardent desire of discovering the cross on which 
our Blessed Redeemer suffered. After many labors, three crosses 
were found on Mount Calvary, together with the nails and the 
inscription recorded by the Evangelists. It still remained to 
identify the true Cross of our Lord. By the advice of the Bishop, 
Macarius, the three were applied successively to a woman afflicted 
with an incurable disease, and no sooner had the third touched 
her than she arose perfectly healed. The pious empress, trans- 
ported with joy, built a most glorious church on Mount Calvary 
to receive the precious relic, sending portions of it to Rome and 



360 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 19. 



Constantinople, where they were solemnly exposed to the adora- 
tion of the faithful. In the year 312, Constantine found himself 
attacked by Maxentius with vastly superior forces, and the very 
existence of his empire threatened. In this crisis, he bethought 
him of the crucified Christian God whom his mother Helena wor- 
shipped ; and kneeling down, prayed God to reveal Himself and 
give him the victory. Suddenly, at noonday, a cross of fire was 
seen by his army in the calm and cloudless sky, and beneath it 
the words, In hoc signo vinces — " Through this sign thou shalt con- 
quer." By divine command, Constantine made a standard like 
the cross he had seen, which was borne at the head of his troops ; 
and under this Christian ensign they marched against the enemy, 
and obtained a complete victory. Shortly after, Helena herself 
returned to Rome, where she expired, a.d. 328. 

St. Agapetus suffered in his youth a cruel martyrdom at Prae- 
neste, now called Palestrina, twenty-four miles from Rome, under 
Aurelian, about the year 275. His name is famous in the ancient 
calendars of the Church of Rome. Two churches in Palestrina 
and others in other places are dedicated to God under his name. 

Reflection. — St. Helena thought it the glory of her life to find 
the cross of Christ, and to raise a temple in its honor. How 
many Christians in these days are ashamed to make this life- 
giving sign, and to confess themselves the followers of the Cru- 
cified ! 



Tp^HIS Saint was little nephew to St. Louis, King of France, and 



nephew, by his mother, to St. Elizabeth of Hungary. He 



was born at Brignoles, in Provence, in 1274. He was a Saint 
from the cradle, and from his childhood made it his earnest study 
to do nothing which was not directed to the divine service, and 
with a view only to eternity. Even his recreations he referred to 
this end, and chose only such as were serious and seemed barely 
necessary for the exercise of the body and preserving the vigor 
of the mind. His walks usually led him to some church or reli- 
gious house. It was his chief delight to hear the servants of God 
discourse of mortification or the most perfect practices of piety. 
His modesty and recollection in the church inspired with devotion 
all who saw him. When he was only seven years old, his mother 



AUGUST 19.— ST. LOUIS, BISHOP. 




August 19.] LIVES OF the SAINTS. 



361 



found him often lying in the night on a mat which was spread 
on the floor near his bed, which he did out of an early spirit 
of penance. In 1284, our Saint's father, Charles II., then Prince 
of Salerno, was taken prisoner in a sea-fight by the King 
of Arragon, and was only released on condition that he sent 
into Arragon, as hostages, fifty gentlemen and three of his 
sons, one of whom was our Saint. Louis was set at liberty 
in 1294, by a treaty concluded between the King of Naples, 
his father, and James II. King of Arragon, one condition of 
which was the marriage of his sister Blanche with the King of 




Arragon. Both courts had, at the same time, extremely at heart 
the project of a double marriage, and that the princess of Ma- 
jorca, sister to King James of Arragon, should be married to 
Louis, but the Saint's resolution of dedicating himself to God was 
inflexible, and he resigned his right to the crown of Naples, 
which he begged his father to confer on his next brother, Robert. 
The opposition of his family obliged the superiors of the Friar 
Minors to refuse for some time to admit him into their body, 
wherefore he took holy orders at Naples. The pious Pope St. 
Celestine' had nominated him Archbishop of Lyons in 1294; but, 
as he had not then taken the tonsure, he found means to defeat 
that project. Boniface VIII. gave him a dispensation to receive 
priestly orders in the twenty-third year of his age, and afterward 



362 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [AUGUST 20. 

sent him a like dispensation for the episcopal character, together 
with his nomination to the archbishopric of Toulouse, and a 
severe injunction, in virtue of holy obedience, to accept the same. 
However, he first made his religious profession among the Friar 
Minors on Christmas eve, 1296, and received the episcopal con- 
secration in the beginning of the February following. He trav- 
elled to his bishopric as a poor religious, but was received at 
Toulouse with the veneration due to a Saint and the magnificence 
that became a prince. His modesty, mildness, and devotion in- 
spired a love of piety in all who beheld him. It was his first 
care to provide for the relief of the indigent, and his first visits 
were made to the hospitals and the poor. In his apostolical labors, 
he abated nothing of his austerities, said Mass every day, and 
preached frequently. Being obliged to go into Provence for cer- 
tain very urgent ecclesiastical affairs, he fell sick at the castle of 
Brignoles. Finding his end draw near, he received the viaticum 
on his knees, melting in tears, and in his last moments ceased not 
to repeat the Hail Mary. He died on the 19th of August, 1297, 
being only twenty-three years and six months old. 

V AUGUST 20.— ST. BERNARD. 

ERNARD was born at the castle of Fontaines, in Burgundy/ 
The grace of his person and the vigor of his intellect filled 
his parents with the highest hopes, and the world lay bright 
and smiling before him when he renounced it forever and joined 
the monks of Citeaux. All his brothers followed Bernard to 
Citeaux except Nivard, the youngest, who was left to be the stay 
of his father in his old age. " You will now be heir of every thing," 
said they to him, as they departed. "Yes," said the boy; "you 
leave me earth, and keep heaven for yourselves ; do you call 
that fair?" And he too left the world. At length their aged 
father came to exchange wealth and honor for the poverty of a 
monk of Clairvaux. One only sister remained behind ; she was 
married, and loved the world and its pleasures. Magnificently 
dressed, she visited Bernard ; he refused to see her, and only at 
last consented to do so, not as her brother, but as the minister of 
Christ. The words he then spoke moved her so much that, two 
years later, she retired to a convent with her husband's consent, 
and died in the reputation of sanctity. Bernard's holy example 
attracted so many novices that other monasteries were erected, and 
our Saint was appointed abbot of that of Clairvaux. Unspar- 




August 20.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



363 



ing with himself, he at first expected too much of his brethren, 
who were disheartened at his severity ; but soon perceiving his 
error, he led them forward, by the sweetness of his correction and 
the mildness of his rule, to wonderful perfection. In spite of his 
desire to lie hid, the fame of his sanctity spread far and wide, and 
many churches asked for him as their Bishop. Through the help 
of Blessed Eugenius III., his former subject, he escaped this dig- 
nity; yet his retirement was continually invaded : the poor and 
the weak sought his protection ; bishops, kings, and popes applied 
to him for advice ; and at length Eugenius himself charged him to 




preach the crusade. By his fervor, eloquence, and miracles, Ber- 
nard kindled the enthusiasm of Christendom, and two splendid 
armies were despatched against the infidel. Their defeat was 
only due, said the Saint, to their own sins. Bernard died a.d. 
1 1 53. His most precious writings have earned for him the titles 
of the last of the Fathers and a Doctor of Holy Church. 

Reflection. — St. Bernard used to say to those who applied for 
admission to the monastery, " If you desire to enter here, leave at 
the threshold the body you have brought with you from the 
world; here there is room only for your soul." Let us con- 
stantly ask ourselves St. Bernard's daily question, " To what end 
didst thou come hither?" 



3^4 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 21. 



AUGUST 21.— ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL. 

tT the age of sixteen, Jane Frances de Fremyot, already a 
motherless child, was placed under the care of a worldly- 
minded governess. In this crisis, she offered herself to the 
Mother of God, and secured Mary's protection for life. When a 
Protestant sought her hand, she steadily refused to marry " an 
enemy of God and His Church," and shortly afterwards, as the 
loving and beloved wife of the Baron de Chantal, made her house 
the pattern of a Christian home. But God had marked her for 
something higher than domestic sanctity. Two children and a 




dearly-loved sister died, and, in the full tide of prosperity, her 
husband's life was taken by the innocent hand of a friend. For 
seven years the sorrows of her widowhood were increased by ill- 
usage from servants and inferiors, and the cruel importunities of 
friends, who urged her to marry again. Harassed almost to 
despair by their entreaties, she branded on her heart the name of 
Jesus, and in the end left her beloved home and children to live 
for God alone. It was on the 19th of March, 1609, that Madame 
de Chantal bade farewell to her family and relations. Pale, and 
with tears in her eyes, she passed round the large room, sweetly 
and humbly taking leave of each. Her son, a boy of fifteen, used 
every entreaty, every endearment, to induce his mother not to 



August 22.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



365 



leave them, and at last passionately flung himself across the door 
of the room. In an agony of distress, she passed on over the body 
of her son to the embrace of her aged and disconsolate father. 
The anguish of that parting reached its height when, kneeling at 
the feet of the venerable old man, she sought and obtained his last 
blessing, promising to repay in her new home his sacrifice by her 
prayers. Well might St. Francis call her " the valiant woman." 
She was to found with St. Francis de Sales a great Order. Sick- 
ness, opposition, want, beset her, and the death of children, friends, 
and of St. Francis himself followed, while eighty-seven houses of 
the Visitation rose under her hand. Nine long years of interior 
desolation completed the work of God's grace; and in her seven- 
tieth year, St. Vincent of Paul saw, at the moment of her death, 
her soul ascend, as a ball of fire, to heaven. 

Reflection. — Profit by the successive trials of life to gain the 
strength and courage of St. Jane Frances, and they will become 
stepping-stones from earth to heaven. 




AUGUST 22.— ST. SYMPHORIAN, MARTYR. 

tBOUT the year 180, there was a great procession of the 
heathen goddess Ceres, at Autun, in France. Amongst the 
crowd was one who refused to pay the ordinary marks of 
worship. He was therefore dragged before the magistrate and 
accused of sacrilege and sedition. When asked his name and 
condition, he replied, " My name is Symphorian ; I am a Chris- 
tian." He came of a noble and Christian family. He was still 
young, and so innocent that he was said to converse with the holy 
angels. The Christians of Autun were few and little known, and 
the judge could not believe that the youth was serious in his pur- 
pose. He caused the laws enforcing heathen worship to be read, 
and looked for a speedy compliance. Symphorian replied that he 
must obey the laws of the King of kings. " Give me a hammer," 
he said, "and I will break your idol in pieces." He was scourged 
and thrown into a dungeon. Some days later, this son of light 
came forth from the darkness of his prison, haggard and worn, 
but full of joy. He despised the riches and honors offered to him 
as he had despised torments. He died by the sword, and went 
to the court of the heavenly King. The mother of St. Sympho- 
rian stood on the city walls and saw her son led out to die. She 
knew the honors he had refused and the dishonor of his death, but 



3 66 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 23. 



she esteemed the reproach of Christ better than all the riches of 
Egypt, and she cried out to him, " My son, my son, keep the liv- 
ing God in your heart; look up to Him who reigns in heaven." 
Thus she shared in the glory of his passion, and her name lives 
with his in the records of the Church. Little more than a cen- 
tury later, the Roman Empire bowed before the faith of Christ. 
Many miracles spread the glory of St. Symphorian, and of Christ 
the King of Saints. 




Reflection. — The Catholic religion teaches us to be subject 
to every rightful authority. But no earthly authority has any 
right against Christ and His Church. If we are accused of sedi- 
tion or disobedience because we are faithful to our religion, then 
Ave must choose as St. Symphorian chose, and obey God rather 
than man. 

AUGUST 23.— ST. PHILIP BENIZI. 

T. PHILIP BENIZI was born in Florence, on the Feast of 
the Assumption, 1233. That same day, the Order of Servites 
was founded by the Mother of God. As an infant at the 
breast, Philip broke out into speech at the sight of these new reli- 
gious, and begged his mother to give them alms. Amidst all the 
temptations of his youth, he longed to become himself a servant 




August 23.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



367 



of Mary, and it was only the fear of his own unworthiness which 
made him yield to his father's wish and begin to practise medi- 
cine. After long and weary waiting, his doubts were solved by 
our Lady herself, who in a vision bade him enter her Order. 
Still Philip dared only offer himself as a lay brother, and in this 
humble state he strove to do penance for his sins. In spite of 
his reluctance, he was promoted to the post of master of novices; 
and as his rare abilities were daily discovered, he was bidden to 
prepare for the priesthood. Thenceforth honors were heaped 
upon him ; he became general of the Order, and only escaped by 




flight elevation to the Papal throne. His preaching restored 
peace to Italy, which was wasted by civil wars ; and at the Coun- 
cil of Lyons, he spoke to the assembled prelates with the gift of 
tongues. Amid all these favors, Philip lived in extreme penitence, 
constantly examining his soul before the judgment-seat of God, 
and condemning himself as only fit for hell. St. Philip, though 
he was free from the stain of mortal sin, was never weary of be- 
seeching God's mercy. From the time he was ten years old, he 
said daily the Penitential Psalms. On his death-bed he kept re- 
citing the verses of the Miserere^ with his cheeks streaming with 
tears ; and during his agony, he went through a terrible contest 
to overcome the fear of damnation. But a few minutes before he 
died, all his doubts disappeared and were succeeded by a holy 
trust. He uttered the responses in a low but audible voice; and 



368 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [AUGUST 24. 



when at last the Mother of God appeared before him, he lifted up 
his arms with joy and breathed a gentle sigh, as if placing his 
soul in her hand. He died on the Octave of the Assumption, 1285. 

Reflection. — Endeavor so to act as you would wish to have 
acted when you stand before your Judge. This is the rule of the 
Saints, and the only safe rule for all. 



T. BARTHOLOMEW was one of the twelve who were 



called to the Apostolate by our Blessed Lord Himself. 



Several learned interpreters of the Holy Scripture take this 
Apostle to have been the same as Nathaniel, a native of Cana, in 
Galilee, a doctor in the Jewish law, and one of the seventy-two 
disciples of Christ, to whom he was conducted by St. Philip, and 
whose innocence and simplicity of heart deserved to be celebrated 
with the highest eulogium by the divine mouth of our Redeemer. 
He is mentioned among the disciples who were met together in 



prayer after Christ's ascension, and he received the Holy Ghost 
with the rest. Being eminently qualified by the Divine Grace to 
discharge the functions of an apostle, he carried the Gospel 
through the most barbarous countries of the East, penetrating 



AUGUST 24.— ST. BARTHOLOMEW, APOSTLE. 





August 25.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



369 



into the remoter Indies. He then returned again into the north- 
west part of Asia, and met St. Philip at Hierapolis, in Phrygia, 
Hence he travelled into Lycaonia, where he instructed the people 
in the Christian faith ; but we know not even the names of many 
of the countries in which he preached. St. Bartholomew's last 
removal was into Great Armenia, where, preaching in a place 
obstinately addicted to the worship of idols, he was crowned with 
a glorious martyrdom. The modern Greek historians say that 
he was condemned by the governor of Albanopolis to be cruci- 
fied. Others affirm that he was flayed alive, which might well 
enough consist with his crucifixion, this double punishment being 
in use not only in Egypt, but also among the Persians. 

Reflection. — The characteristic virtue of the apostles was 
zeal for the divine glory, the first property of the love of God. 
A soldier is always ready to defend the honor of his prince, and 
a son that of his father ; and can a Christian say he loves God 
who is indifferent to His honor ? 



AUGUST 25.— ST. LOUIS, KING. 

HE mother of Louis told him she would rather see him die than 
commit a mortal sin, and he never forgot her words. King 
of France at the age of twelve, he made the defence of 
God's honor the aim of his life. Before two years, he had crushed 
the Albigensian heretics, and forced them by stringent penalties 
to respect the Catholic faith. Amidst the cares of government, he 
daily recited the Divine Office and heard two Masses, and the most 
glorious churches in France are still monuments of his piety. 
When his courtiers remonstrated with Louis for his law that 
blasphemers should be branded on the lips, he replied, " I would 
willingly have my own lips branded to root out blasphemy from 
my kingdom." The fearless protector of the weak and the op- 
pressed, he was chosen to arbitrate in all the great feuds of his age 
between the Pope and the Emperor, between Henry III. and the 
English barons. In 1248, to rescue the land which Christ had trod, 
he gathered round him the chivalry of France, and embarked for 
the East. There, before the infidel, in victory or defeat, on the bed 
of sickness or a captive in chains, Louis showed himself ever the 
same, the first, the best, and the bravest of Christian knights. When 
a captive at Damietta, an Emir rushed into his tent brandishing a 




LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [AUGUST 25. 



dagger red with the blood of the Sultan, and threatened to stab him 
also unless he would make him a knight, as the Emperor Frede- 
rick had Facardin. Louis calmly replied that no unbeliever could 
perform the duties of a Christian knight. In the same captivity, 
he was offered his liberty on terms lawful in themselves, but en- 
forced by an oath which implied a blasphemy, and though the 
infidels held their swords' points at his throat, and threatened a 
massacre of the Christians, Louis inflexibly refused. The death 
of his mother recalled him to France ; but when order was re-es- 
tablished, he again set forth on a second crusade. In August, 




1270, his army landed at Tunis, and, though victorious over the 
enemy, succumbed to a malignant fever. Louis was one of the 
victims. He received the Viaticum kneeling by his camp-bed, 
and gave up his life with the same joy that he had given all else 
for the honor of God. 



Reflection. — If we cannot imitate St. Louis in dying for the 
honor of God, we can at least resemble him in resenting the 
blasphemies offered against God by the infidel, the heretic, and 
the scoffer. 



August 26.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



371 



AUGUST 26.— ST. ZEPHYRINUS, POPE AND MARTYR. 

fT. ZEPHYRINUS, a native of Rome, succeeded Victor in the 
pontificate, in the year 202, in which Severus raised the fifth 
most bloody persecution against the Church, which con- 
tinued not for two years only, but until the death of that emperor 
in 211. Under this furious storm this holy pastor was the sup- 
port and comfort of the distressed flock of Christ, and he suffered 
by charity and compassion what every confessor underwent. The 
triumphs of the martyrs were indeed his joy, but his heart re- 
ceived many deep wounds from the fall of apostates and heretics. 
Neither did this latter affliction cease when peace was restored to 




the Church. Our Saint had also the affliction to sec the fall of 
Tertullian, which seems to have been owing partly to his pride. 
Eusebius tells us that this holy Pope exerted his zeal so strenu- 
ously against the blasphemies of the heretics that they treated him 
in the most contumelious manner; but it was his glory that they 
called him the principal defender of Christ's divinity. St. Zephy- 
rinus filled the pontifical chair seventeen years, dying in 219. He 
was buried in his own cemetery, on the 26th of August. He is, in 
some Martyrologies, styled a martyr, which title he might deserve 
by what he suffered in the persecution, though he perhaps did not 
die by the executioner. 



3/2 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [AUGUST 27, 

Reflection. — God has always raised up holy pastors zealous 
to maintain the faith of His Church inviolable, and to watch over 
the purity of its morals and the sanctity of its discipline. We 
enjoy the greatest advantages of the divine grace through their 
labors, and we owe to God a tribute of perpetual thanksgiving 
and immortal praise for all those mercies which He has afforded 
His Church on earth. 

AUGUST 27.-ST. JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS. 

T. JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS was born in Arragon, a.d. 
1556. When only five years old, he led a troop of children 
through the streets to find the devil and kill him. He be- 
came a priest, and was engaged in various reforms, when he heard 
a voice saying, " Go to Rome," and had a vision of many children 
who were being taught by him and by a company of angels. 
When he reached the Holy City, his heart was moved by the vice 
and ignorance of the children of the poor. Their need mastered 




his humility, and he founded the Order of Clerks Regular of the 
Pious Schools. He himself provided all that was necessary for 
the education of the children, receiving nothing from them in 
payment, and there were soon about a thousand scholars of every 



August 28.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



373 



rank under his care. Each lesson began with prayer. Every half- 
hour devotion was renewed by acts of faith, hope, and charity, and 
towards the end of school-time the children were instructed in the 
Christian doctrine. They were then escorted home by the mas- 
ters, so as to escape all harm by the way. But enemies arose 
against Joseph from among his own subjects. They accused him 
to the Holy Office, and at the age of eighty-six he was led through 
the streets to prison. At last the Order was reduced to a simple 
congregation. It was not restored to its former privileges till 
after the Saint's death. Yet he died full of hope. "My work," 
he said, " was done solely for the love of God." 

Reflection. — " My children," said the Cure of Ars, " I often 
think that most of the Christians who are lost are lost for want of 
instruction ; they do not know their religion well." 



AUGUST 28.— ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO. 




violent pa-ssions, he early lost both his faith and his innocence. 
He persisted in his irregular life until he was thirty-two. Being 
then at Milan professing rhetoric, he tells us that the faith of his 



374 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 29. 



childhood had regained possession of his intellect, but that he 
could not as yet resolve to break the chains of evil habit. One 
day, however, stung to the heart by the account of some sudden 
conversions, he cried out, " The unlearned rise and storm heaven, 
and we, with all our learning, for lack of heart lie wallowing 
here." He then withdrew into a garden, when a long and terrible 
conflict ensued. Suddenly a young fresh voice (he knows not 
whose) breaks in upon his strife with the words, " Take and 
read;" and he lights upon the passage beginning, " Walk hon- 
estly as in the day." The battle was won. He received baptism, 
returned home, and gave all to the poor. At Hippo, where he 
settled, he was consecrated bishop in 395. For thirty-five years 
he was the centre of ecclesiastical life in Africa, and the Church's 
mightiest champion against heresy ; whilst his writings have been 
everywhere accepted as one of the principal sources of devotional 
thought and theological speculation. He died in 430. 

Reflection. — Read the lives of the Saints, and you will find 
that you are gradually creating a society about you to which in 
some measure you will be forced to raise the standard of your 
daily life. 



AUGUST 29.— THE BEHEADING OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

>©T. JOHN THE BAPTIST was called by God to be the fore- 



runner of his Divine Son. In order to preserve his innocence 



spotless, and to improve the extraordinary graces which he 
had received, he was directed by the Holy Ghost to lead an austere 
and contemplative life in the wilderness, in the continual exer- 
cises of devout prayer and penance, from his infancy till he was 
thirty years of age. At this age, the faithful minister began to 
discharge his mission. Clothed with the weeds of penance, he an- 
nounced to all men the obligation they lay under of washing 
away their iniquities with the tears of sincere compunction ; and 
proclaimed the Messiah, who was then coming to make his ap- 
pearance among them. He was received by the people as the true 
herald of the Most High God, and his voice was, as it were, a 
trumpet sounding from heaven to summon all men to avert the 
divine judgments, and to prepare themselves to reap the benefit of 
the mercy that was offered them. The tetrarch Herod Antipas 
having, in defiance of all laws divine and human, married Hero- 
dias, the wife of his brother Philip, who was yet living, St. John 
the Baptist boldly reprehended the tetrarch and his accomplice for 




August 29.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



375 



so scandalous an incest and adultery, and Herod, urged on by lust 
and anger, cast the Saint into prison. About a year after St. John 
had been made a prisoner, Herod gave a splendid entertainment 
to the nobility of Galilee. Salome, a daughter of Herodias by 
her lawful husband, pleased Herod by her dancing, insomuch that 
he promised her to grant whatever she asked. On this, Salome 
consulted with her mother what to ask. Herodias instructed her 
daughter to demand the death of John the Baptist, and persuaded 
the young damsel to make it part of her petition that the head of 
the prisoner should be forthwith brought to her in a dish. This 




strange request startled the tyrant himself ; he assented, how- 
ever, and sent a soldier of his guard to behead the Saint in prison, 
with an order to bring his head in a charger and present it to 
Salome, who delivered it to her mother. St. Jerome relates that 
the furious Herodias made it her inhuman pastime to prick the 
sacred tongue with a bodkin. Thus died the great forerunner of 
our blessed Saviour, about two years and three months after 
his entrance upon his public ministry, about a year before the 
death of our blessed Redeemer. 

Reflection. — All the high graces with which St. John was 
favored sprang from his humility ; in this all his other virtues were 
founded. If we desire to form ourselves upon so great a model, 
we must, above all things, labor to lay the same deep foundation. 



37 6 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 30. 




AUGUST 30.— ST. ROSE OF LIMA. 

fHIS lovely flower of sanctity, the first canonized Saint of the 
New World, was born at Lima in 1586. She was christened 
Isabel, but the beauty of her infant face earned for her the 
title of Rose, which she ever after bore. As a child, while still in 
the cradle, her silence under a painful surgical operation proved 
the thirst for suffering already consuming her heart. At an early 
age she took service to support her impoverished parents, and 
worked for them day and night. In spite of hardships and aus- 
terities, her beauty ripened with increasing age, and she was much 
and openly admired. From fear of vanity she cut off her hair, blis- 
tered her face with pepper and her hands with lime. For further 
security she enrolled herself in the Third Order of St. Dominic, 
took St. Catherine of Siena as her model, and redoubled her pen- 
ance. Her cell was a garden hut, her couch a box of broken 
tiles. Under her habit Rose wore a hair-shirt studded with iron 
nails, while, concealed by her veil, a silver crown armed with 
ninety points encircled her head. More than once, when she 
shuddered at the prospect of a night of torture, a voice said, " My 
Cross was yet more painful." The Blessed Sacrament seemed al- 
most her only food. Her love for it was intense. When the 
Dutch fleet prepared to attack the town, Rose took her place be- 
fore the tabernacle, and wept that she was not worthy to die in its 



August 30.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



377 



defence. All her sufferings were offered for the conversion of sin- 
ners, and the thought of the multitudes in hell was ever before her 
soul. She died a.d. 161 7, at the age of thirty-one. 

Reflection. — Rose, pure as driven snow, was filled with deep- 
est contrition and humility, and did constant and terrible penance. 
Our sins are continual, our repentance passing, our contrition 
slight, our penance nothing. How will it fare with us ? 

ST. FIAKER, ANCHORITE. 

fT. FIAKER was nobly born in Ireland, and had his education 
under the care of a bishop of eminent sanctity, who was 
according to some, Conan, Bishop of Soder, or the Western 
Islands. Looking upon all worldly advantages as dross, he left 
his country and friends in the flower of his age, and with certain 
pious companions sailed over to France, in quest of some soli- 
tude in which he might devote himself to God, unknown to the 
rest of the world. Divine Providence conducted him to St. Faro, 




who was the Bishop of Meaux, and eminent for sanctity. When 
St. Fiaker addressed himself to him, the prelate, charmed with 
the marks of extraordinary virtue and abilities which he dis- 
covered in this stranger, gave him a solitary dwelling in a forest 



373 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[August 31. 



called Breuil, which was his own patrimony, two leagues from 
Meaux. In this place the holy anchorite cleared the ground of 
trees and briers, made himself a cell, with a small garden, and 
built an oratory in honor of the Blessed Virgin, in which he 
spent great part of the days and nights in devout prayer. He 
tilled his garden, and labored with his own hands for his subsist- 
ence. The life he led was most austere, and only necessity or 
charity ever interrupted his exercises of prayer and heavenly con- 
templation. Many resorted to him for advice, and the poor for re- 
lief. But, following an inviolable rule among the Irish monks, he 
never suffered any woman to enter the inclosure of his hermitage. 
St. Chillen, or Kilian, an Irishman of high birth, on his return 
from Rome, visited St. Fiaker, who was his kinsman, and having 
passed some time under his discipline, was directed by his advice, 
with the authority of the bishops, to preach in that and the neigh- 
boring dioceses. This commission he executed with admirable 
sanctity and fruit. St. Fiaker died about the year 670, on the 30th 
of August. 

Reflection. — Ye who love indolence, ponder well these words 
of St. Paul : " If any man will not work, neither let him eat." 



T. RAYMUND NONNATUS was born in Catalonia, in the 



year 1204, and was descended of a gentleman's family of a 



small fortune. In his childhood he seemed to find pleasure 
only in his devotions and serious duties. His father, perceiv- 
ing in him an inclination to a religious state, took him from 
school, and sent him to take care of a farm which he had in the 
country. Raymund readily obeyed, and, in order to enjoy the 
opportunity of holy solitude, kept the sheep himself, and spent 
his time in the mountains and forests in holy meditation and 
prayer. Some time after, he joined the new Order of our Lady of 
Mercy for the redemption of captives, and was admitted to his 
profession at Barcelona by the holy founder, St. Peter Nolasco. 
Within two or three years after his profession, he was sent into 
Barbary with a considerable sum of money, where he purchased, 
at Algiers, the liberty of a great number of slaves. When all this 
treasure was exhausted, he gave himself up as a hostage for the 
ransom of certain others. This magnanimous sacrifice served only 
to exasperate the Mohammedans, who treated him with uncom- 




AUGUST 31.— ST. RAYMUND NONNATUS. 




August 31.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



379 



mon barbarity, till, fearing lest if he died in their hands they should 
lose the ransom which was to be paid for the slaves for whom 
he remained a hostage, they gave orders that he should be treated 
with more humanity. Hereupon he was permitted to go abroad 
about the streets, which liberty he made use of to comfort and 
encourage the Christians in their chains, and he converted and 
baptized some Mohammedans. For this the governor condemned 
him to be put to death by thrusting a stake into the body, but 
his punishment was commuted, and he underwent a cruel basti- 
nado. This torment did not daunt his courage. So long as he 




saw souls in danger of perishing eternally, he thought he had yet 
done nothing. St. Raymund had no more money to employ in 
releasing poor captives, and to speak to a Mohammedan upon the 
subject of religion was death. He could, however, still exert his 
endeavors, with hopes of some success, or of dying a martyr of 
charity. He therefore resumed his former method of instructing 
and exhorting both the Christians and the infidels. The governor, 
who was enraged, ordered our Saint to be barbarously tortured 
and imprisoned till his ransom was brought by some religious men 
of his Order, who were sent with it by St. Peter. Upon his return 
to Spain, he was nominated cardinal by Pope Gregory IX., and 
the Pope, being desirous to have so holy a man about his person, 
called him to Rome. The Saint obeyed, but went no further than 



38o 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[September i. 



Cardona, when he was seized with a violent fever, which proved 
mortal. He died on the 31st of August, in the year 1240, the thirty- 
seventh of his age. 

Reflection. — This Saint gave not only his substance but his 
liberty, and even exposed himself to the most cruel torments and 
death, for the redemption of captives and the salvation of souls. 
But alas ! do not we, merely to gratify our prodigality, vanity, or 
avarice, refuse to give the superfluous part of our possessions to 
the poor, who for want of it are perishing with cold and hunger? 
Let us remember that " He that giveth to the poor shall not want." 

SEPTEMBER 1.— ST. GILES, ABBOT. 

T. GILES, whose name has been held in great veneration for 
several ages in France and England, is said to have been an 
Athenian by birth, and of noble extraction. His extraordi- 
nary piety and learning drew the admiration of the world upon 
him in such a manner that it was impossible for him to enjoy in 




his own country that obscurity and retirement which was the 
chief object of his desires on earth. He therefore sailed to France, 
and chose an hermitage first in the open deserts near the mouth 
of the Rhone, afterward near the river Gard, and lastly in a for- 




September 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



381 



est in the diocese of Nismes. He passed many years in this close 
solitude, living on wild herbs or roots and water, and conversing 
only with God. We read in his life that he was for some time nour- 
ished with the milk of a hind in the forest, which, being pursued 
by hunters, fled for refuge to the Saint, who was thus discovered. 
The reputation of the sanctity of this holy hermit was much in- 
creased by many miracles which he wrought, and which rendered 
his name famous throughout all France. St. Giles was highly 
esteemed by the French king, but could not be prevailed upon 
to forsake his solitude. He, however, admitted several disciples, 
and settled excellent discipline in the monastery of which he was 
the founder, and which, in succeeding ages, became a flourishing 
abbey of the Benedictine Order. 

Reflection. — He who accompanies the exercises of contem- 
plation and arduous penance with zealous and undaunted endeav- 
ors to conduct others to the same glorious term with himself, shall 
be truly great in the kingdom of heaven. 

SEPTEMBER 2.— ST. STEPHEN, KING. 

EYSA, fourth Duke of Hungary, was, with his wife, con- 
verted to the faith, and saw in a vision the martyr St. 
Stephen, who told him that he should have a son, who would 
perfect the work he had begun. This son was born a.d. 977, and 
received the name of Stephen. He was most carefully educated, 
and succeeded his father at an early age. He began to root out 
idolatry, suppressed a rebellion of his pagan subjects, and founded 
monasteries and churches all over the land. He sent to Pope 
Sylvester, begging him to appoint bishops to the eleven sees he 
had endowed, and to bestow on him, for the greater success of his 
work, the title of king. The Pope granted his requests, and sent 
him a cross to be borne before him, saying that he regarded him 
as the true apostle of his people. His devotion was fervent. 
He placed his realms under the protection of our Blessed Lady, 
and kept the feast of her Assumption with peculiar affection. 
He gave good laws, and saw to their execution. Throughout his 
life, we are told, he had Christ on his lips, Christ in his heart, and 
Christ in all he did. His only wars were wars of defence, and he 
was always successful. God sent him many and sore trials. One 
by one his children died, but he bore all with perfect submission 
to the will of God. When St. Stephen was about to die, he sum- 




3 82 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[September 3. 



moned the bishops and nobles, and gave them charge concerning 
the choice of a successor. Then he urged them to nurture and 
cherish the Catholic Church, which was still as a tender plant in 
Hungary, to follow justice, humility, and charity, to be obedient 
to the laws, and to show ever a reverent submission to the Holy 
See. Then, raising his eyes towards heaven, he said, " O Queen of 
Heaven, august restorer of a prostrate world, to thy care I com- 
mend the Holy Church, my people and my realm, and my own 
departing soul." And then, on his favorite feast of the Assump- 
tion, a.d. 1038, he died in peace. 




Reflection. — " Our duty," says Father Newman, " is to follow 
the Vicar of Christ whither he goeth, and never to desert him, 
however we may be tried ; but to defend him at all hazards and 
against all comers, as a son would a father, and as a wife a hus- 
band, knowing that his cause is the cause of God." 



SEPTEMBER 3.— ST. SERAPHIA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR. 

T. SERAPHIA was born at Antioch, of Christian parents, 
who, flying from the persecutions of Adrian, went to Italy 
and settled there. Her parents dying, Seraphia was sought 
in marriage by many, but having resolved to consecrate herself 




September 3.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



383 



to God alone, she sold all her possessions and distributed the pro- 
ceeds to the poor ; finally she sold herself into a voluntary slavery 
and entered the service of a Roman lady, named Sabina. The 
piety of Seraphia, her love of work, and her charity soon gained 
the heart of her mistress, who was not long in becoming a Chris- 
tian. Having been denounced as a follower of Christ, Seraphia 
was condemned to death. She was at first placed on a burning 
pile, but remained uninjured by the flames. Almost despairing of 
being able to inflict death upon her, the prefect Berillus ordered 
her to be beheaded, and she thus received the crown which she so 




richly merited. Her mistress gathered her remains, and interred 
them with every mark of respect. Sabina, meeting with a mar- 
tyr's death, a year after, was laid in the same tomb with her faith- 
ful servant. As early as the fifth century, there was a church at 
Rome placed under their invocation. 

Reflection. — Christian courage bears relation to our faith : 
" If we continue in the faith, grounded, and settled, and immova- 
ble," all things will be found possible to us. 



384 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [SEPTEMBER 4. 

SEPTEMBER 4.— ST. ROSALIA, VIRGIN. 

T. ROSALIA was daughter of a noble family descended 
from Charlemagne. She was born at Palermo in Sicily, 
and despising in her youth worldly vanities, made herself 
an abode in a cave on Mount Pelegrino, three miles from Pa- 
lermo, where she completed the sacrifice of her heart to God by 
austere penance and manual labor, sanctified by assiduous prayer 
and the constant union of her soul with God. She died in 1160. 
Her body was found buried in a grot under the mountain, in the 
year of the jubilee, 1625, under Pope Urban VIII., and was trans- 




lated into the metropolitical church of Palermo, of which she was 
chosen a patroness. To her patronage that island ascribes the 
ceasing of a grievous pestilence at the same time. 

St. Rose of Viterbo, who is honored on this same day, was born 
in the spring of 1240, a time when Frederick II. was oppressing 
the Church and many were faithless to the Holy See. The infant 
at once seemed filled with grace ; with tottering steps she sought 
Jesus in His tabernacle, she knelt before sacred images, she lis- 
tened to pious talk, retaining all she heard, and this when she was 
scarcely three years old. One coarse habit covered her flesh ; fasts 
and disciplines were her delight. To defend the Church's rights 
was her burning wish, and for this she received her mission from 




September 5.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



385 



the Mother of God, who gave her the Franciscan habit, with the 
command to go forth and preach. When hardly ten years old, 
Rose went down to the public square at Viterbo, called upon the 
inhabitants to be faithful to the Sovereign Pontiff, and vehemently 
denounced all his opponents. So great was the power of her 
word, and of the miracles which accompanied it, that the Imperial 
party, in fear and anger, drove her from the city, but she con- 
tinued to preach till Innocent IV. was brought back in triumph 
to Rome and the cause of God was won. Then she retired to a 
little cell at Viterbo, and prepared in solitude for her end. She 
died in her eighteenth year. Not long after, she appeared in glory 
to Alexander IV., and bade him translate her body. He found it 
as the vision had said, but fragrant and beautiful, as if still in life. 

Reflection. — Rose lived but seventeen years, saved the 
Church's cause, and died a Saint. We have lived, perhaps, much 
longer, and yet with what result ? Every minute something can 
be done for God. Let us be up and doing. 

SEPTEMBER 5. — ST. LAURENCE GIUSTINIANI. 

JT/J)AURENCE from a child longed to be a Saint ; and when 
Jl=i ne was nineteen years of age there was granted to him a 
vision of the Eternal Wisdom. All earthly things paled in 
his eyes before the ineffable beauty of this sight, and as it faded 
away a void was left in his heart which none but God could fill. 
Refusing the offer of a brilliant marriage, he fled secretly from 
his home at Venice, and joined the Canons Regular of St. George. 
One by one he crushed every natural instinct which could bar his 
union with his Love. When Laurence first entered religion, a 
nobleman went to dissuade him from the folly of thus sacrificing 
every earthly prospect. The young monk listened patiently in 
turn to his friend's affectionate appeal, scorn, and violent abuse. 
Calmly and kindly he then replied. He pointed out the short- 
ness of life, the uncertainty of earthly happiness, and the incom- 
parable superiority of the prize he sought to any his friend had 
named. The nobleman could make no answer ; he felt in truth 
that Laurence was wise, himself the fool. He left the world, be- 
came a fellow-novice, with the Saint, and his holy death bore every 
mark that he too had secured the treasures which never fail. As 
superior and as general, Laurence enlarged and strengthened his 
Order, and as bishop of his diocese, in spite of slander and insult, 



3 86 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[September 6. 




thoroughly reformed his see. His zeal led to his being appointed 
the first patriarch of Venice, but he remained ever in heart and soul 
an humble priest thirsting for the sight of heaven. At length the 
eternal vision began to dawn. " Are you laying a bed of feathers 
forme?" he said. "Not so; my Lord was stretched on a hard 
and painful tree." Laid upon the straw, he exclaimed in rapture, 
"Good Jesus, behold I come." He died a.d. 1435, aged seventy- 
four. 

Reflection. — Ask St. Laurence to vouchsafe you such a sense 
of the sufficiency of God that you too may fly to Him and be at 
rest. 

SEPTEMBER 6. — ST. ELEUTHERIUS, ABBOT. 

t WONDERFUL simplicity and spirit of compunction were 
the distinguishing virtues of this holy man. He was cho- 
sen abbot of St. Mark's near Spoleto, and favored by God 
with the gift of miracles. A child who was possessed by the 
devil, being delivered by being educated in his monastery, the 
abbot said one day : " Since the child is among the servants of 
God, the devil dares not approach him." These words seemed to 
savor of vanity, and thereupon the devil again entered and tor- 
mented the child. The abbot humbly confessed his fault, and 



September 7.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 387 




fasted and prayed with his whole community till the child was 
again freed from the tyranny of the fiend. St. Gregory the Great, 
not being able to fast on Easter-eve on account of extreme weak- 
ness, engaged this Saint to go with him to the church of St. An- 
drew's and put up his prayers to God for his health, that he might 
join the faithful in that solemn practice of penance. Eleutherius 
prayed with many tears, and the Pope, coming out of the church, 
found his breast suddenly strengthened, so that he was enabled to 
perform the fast as he desired. St. Eleutherius raised a dead man 
to life. Resigning his abbacy, he died in St. Andrew's monastery 
in Rome, about the year 585. 

Reflection. — " Appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father 
who is in heaven, and thy Father, who seeth in secret, He will 
repay thee." 

SEPTEMBER 7.— ST. CLOUD, CONFESSOR. 

T. CLOUD is the first and most illustrious Saint among the 
princes of the royal family of the first race in France. He 
was son of Chlodomir, King of Orleans, the eldest son of 
St. Clotilda, and was born 522. He was scarce three years old 
when his father was killed in Burgundy ; but his grandmother 
Clotilda brought up him and his two brothers at Paris, and 




3 88 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[September 7. 



loved them extremely. Their ambitious uncles divided the king- 
dom of Orleans between them, and stabbed with their own hands 
two of their nephews. Cloud, by a special providence, was saved 
from the massacre, and, renouncing the world, devoted himself to 
the service of God in a monastic state. After a time he put 
himself under the discipline of St. Severinus, a holy recluse who 
lived near Paris, from whose hands he received the monastic habit. 
Wishing to live unknown to the world, he withdrew secretly into 
Provence, but his hermitage being made public, he returned to 
Paris, and *was received with the greatest joy imaginable. At the 




earnest request of the people, he was ordained priest by Eusebius^ 
Bishop of Paris, in 551, and served that Church some time in the 
functions of the sacred ministry. He afterward retired to St. 
Cloud, two leagues below Paris, where he built a monastery. 
Here he assembled many pious men, who fled out of the world for 
fear of losing their souls in it. St. Cloud was regarded by them 
as their superior, and he animated them to all virtue both by word 
and example. He was indefatigable in instructing and exhorting 
the people of the neighboring country, and piously ended his 
days about the year 560. 

Reflection. — Let us remember that "the just shall live for- 
evermore ; they shall receive a kingdom of glory, and a crown of 
beauty at the hand of the Lord." 



September 8.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



389 



SEPTEMBER 8.-THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN. 

fHE birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary announced joy and 
the near approach of salvation to the lost world. Mary was 
brought forth in the world not like other children of Adam, 
infected with the loathsome contagion of sin, but pure, holy, 
beautiful, and glorious, adorned with all the most precious graces 
which became her who was chosen to be the Mother of God. She 




appeared indeed in the weak state of our mortality ; but in the 
eyes of Heaven she already transcended the highest seraph in 
purity, brightness, and the richest ornaments of grace. If we 
celebrate the birthdays of the great ones of this earth, how ought 
we to rejoice in that of the Virgin Mary, presenting to God the 
best homage of our praises and thanksgiving for the great mercies 
He has shown in her, and imploring her mediation with her Son 
in our behalf ! Christ will not reject the supplications of His 
mother, whom He was pleased to obey whilst on earth. Her love, 
care, and tenderness for Him, the title and qualities which she 
bears, the charity and graces with which she is adorned, and the 
crown of glory with which she is honored, must incline Him 
readily to receive her recommendations and petitions. 



390 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[September 8- 



THE FESTIVAL, ON THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE OCTAVE 
OF HER NATIVITY, OF THE HOLY NAME OF MARY. 

HIS festival was appointed by Pope Innocent XL, that on it 
the faithful may be called upon in a particular manner to 
recommend to God, through the intercession of the Blessed 
Virgin, the necessities of His Church, and to return Him thanks 
for His gracious protection and numberless mercies. What gave 
occasion to the institution of this feast was a solemn thanksgiving 
for the relief of Vienna when it was besieged by the Turks in 
1683. If we desire to deprecate the divine anger, justly provoked 
by our sins, with our prayers, we must join the tears of sincere 




compunction with a perfect conversion of our manners. The 
first grace we should always beg of God is that He will bring 
11s to the disposition of condign penance. Our supplications for 
the divine mercies, and our thanksgivings for benefits received, 
will only thus be rendered acceptable. By no other means can we 
deserve the blessing of God, or be recommended to it by the 
patronage of His holy mother. To the invocation of Jesus it is a 
pious and wholesome practice to join our application to the Blessed 
Virgin, that, through her intercession, we may more easily and 
more abundantly obtain the effects of our petitions. In this sense 
devout souls pronounce, with great affection and confidence, the 
holy names of Jesus and Mary. 




September 9.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



391 



SEPTEMBER 9.— ST. OMER, BISHOP. 

fT. OMER was born toward the close of the sixth century, 
in the territory of Constance. His parents, who were noble 
and wealthy, gave great attention to his education, but, above 
all, strove to inspire him with a love for virtue. Upon the death 
of his mother, he entered the monastery of Luxen, whither he per- 
suaded his father to follow him, after having sold his worldly 
goods and distributed the proceeds among the poor. The father 
and son made their religious profession together. The humility, 
obedience, mildness, and devotion, together with the admirable 
purity of manners, which shone forth in every action of St. Omer, 




distinguished him among his saintly brethren, and he was soon 
called from his solitude to take charge of the government of the 
Church in Terouenne. The greater part of those living in his 
diocese were still pagans, and even the few Christians were, 
through a scarcity of priests, fallen into a sad corruption of man- 
ners. The great and difficult work of their conversion was re- 
served for St. Omer. The holy Bishop applied himself to his task 
with such zeal that in a short time his diocese became one of 
the most nourishing in France. In his old age, St. Omer became 
blind, but that affliction did not lessen his pastoral concern for his 
flock. He died in the odor of sanctity, while on a pastoral visit 
to Wavre, in 670. 



392 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [SEPTEMBER 10. 

BLESSED PETER CLAVER. 

ETER CLAVER was a Spanish Jesuit. In Majorca he fell 
in with the holy lay-brother Alphonsus Rodriguez, who, 
having already learned by revelation the saintly career of 
Peter, became his spiritual guide, foretold to him the labors he 
would undergo in the Indies, and the throne he would gain in 
heaven. Ordained priest in New Granada, Peter was sent to Car- 
tagena, the great slave-mart of the West Indies, and there he con- 
secrated himself by vow to the salvation of those ignorant and 
miserable creatures. For more than forty years he labored in this 
work. He called himself " the slave of the slaves." He was their 
apostle, father, physician, and friend. He fed them, nursed them 
with the utmost tenderness in their loathsome diseases, often 
applying his own lips to their hideous sores. His cloak, which 
was the constant covering of the naked, though soiled with their 
filthy ulcers, sent forth a miraculous perfume. His rest after his 
great labors was in nights of penance and prayer. However tired 
he might be, when news arrived of a fresh slave-ship, Blessed 
Peter immediately revived, his eyes brightened, and he was at once 
on board amongst his dear slaves, bringing them comfort for body 
and soul. A false charge of reiterating baptism for a while stopped 
his work. He submitted without a murmur till the calumny 
was refuted, and then God so blessed his toil that 40,000 negroes 
were baptized before he went to his reward, in 1654. 

Reflection. — When you see any one standing in need of your 
assistance, either for body or soul, do not ask yourself why some 
one else did not help him, but think to yourself that you have 
found a treasure. 

SEPTEMBER 10.— ST. NICHOLAS OF TOLENTINO. 

ORN in answer to the prayer of a holy mother, and vowed 
before his birth to the service of God, Nicholas never lost 
his baptismal innocence. His austerities were conspicuous 
even in the austere Order — the Hermits of St. Augustine — to which 
he belonged, and to the remonstrances which were made by his 
superiors, he only replied, " How can I be said to fast, while every 
morning at the altar I receive my God?" He conceived an ardent 
charity for the Holy Souls, so near and yet so far from their 
Saviour; and often after his Mass, it was revealed to him that 




September ii.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



393 



the souls for whom he had offered the Holy Sacrifice had been 
admitted to the presence of God. Amidst his loving labors 
for God and man, he was haunted by fear of his own sinful- 
ness. "The heavens," said he, " are not pure in the sight of Him 
whom I serve; how then shall I, a sinful man, stand before Him ?" 




As he pondered on these things, Mary, the Queen of all Saints, 
appeared before him. " Fear not, Nicholas," she said, "all is well 
with you : my Son bears you in His Heart, and I am your protec- 
tion." Then his soul was at rest; and he heard, we are told, the 
songs which the angels sing in the presence of their Lord. He 
died September ioth, 1310. 

Reflection. — Would you die the death of the just ? there is 
only one way to secure the fulfilment of your wish. Live the life 
of the just. For it is impossible that one who has been faithful to 
God in life should make a bad or an unhappy end. 

SEPTEMBER 11.— ST. PAPHNUTIUS, BISHOP. 

HE holy confessor Paphnutius was an Egyptian, and after 
having spent several years in the desert, under the direction 
of the great St. Antony, was made bishop in Upper Thebais. 
He was one of those confessors who, under the tyrant Maximin 
Daia, lost their right eye, and were afterward sent to work in the 




394 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[September i I. 



mines. Peace being restored to the Church, Paphnutius returned 
to his flock. The Arian heresy being broached in Egypt, he was 
one of the most zealous in defending the Catholic faith, and for 
his eminent sanctity and the glorious title of confessor (or one 
who had confessed the faith before the persecutors and under tor- 
ments) was highly considered in the great Council of Nice. Con- 
stantine the Great, during the celebration of that synod, sometimes 
conferred privately with him in his palace, and never dismissed 
him without kissing respectfully the place which had once held 
the eye he had lost for the faith. St. Paphnutius remained 




always in a close union with St. Athanasius, and accompa- 
nied him to the Council of Tyre, in 335, where they found 
much the greater part of that assembly to be professed Arians. 
Seeing Maximus, Bishop of Jerusalem, among them, Paph- 
nutius took him by the hand, led him out, and told him he 
could not see that any who bore the same marks as he in defence 
of the faith should be seduced and imposed upon by persons who 
were resolved to oppress the most strenuous assertor of its funda- 
mental article. We have no particular account of the death of St. 
Paphnutius ; but his name stands in the Roman Martyrology on 
the nth of September. 

Reflection. — If to fight for our country be glorious, " it is 
likewise great glory to follow the Lord," saith the Wise Man. 



September 12.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



395 



SEPTEMBER 12.— ST. GUY, OF ANDERLECHT. 




S a child Guy had two loves, the Church and the poor. The 
love of prayer growing more and more, he left his poor home 
at Brussels to seek greater poverty and closer union with 
God. He arrived at Laeken, near Brussels, and there showed 
such devotion before our Lady's shrine that the priest besought 
him to stay and serve the Church. Thenceforth, his great joy 
was to be always in the church, sweeping the floor and ceiling, 
polishing the altars, and cleansing the sacred vessels. By day he 




still found time and means to befriend the poor, so that his alms- 
giving became famous in all those parts. A merchant of Brussels, 
hearing of the generosity of this poor sacristan, came to Laeken, 
and offered him a share in his business. Guy could not bear to 
leave the church ; but the offer seemed providential, and he at last 
closed with it. Their ship, however, was lost on the first voyage, 
and on returning to Laeken, Guy found his place filled. The rest 
of his life was one long penance for his inconstancy. About the 
year 1033, finding his end at hand, he returned to Anderlecht, in 
his own country. As he died, a light shone round him, and a 
voice was heard proclaiming his eternal reward. 

Reflection. — Jesus was only nine months in the womb of 
Mary, three hours on the Cross, three days in the sepulchre, but 



39^ 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[September 13. 



He is always in the tabernacle. Does our reverence before Him 
bear witness to this most blessed truth ? 

SEPTEMBER 13.— ST. EULOGIUS, PATRIARCH OF 
ALEXANDRIA. 

T. EULOGIUS was a Syrian by birth, and while young em- 
braced the monastic state in that country. The Eutychian 
heresy had thrown the Churches of Syria and Egypt 
into much confusion, and a great part of the monks of Syria 
were at that time become remarkable for their loose morals 




and errors against faith. Eulogius learned from the fall of 
others to stand more watchfully and firmly upon his guard, and 
was not less distinguished by the innocence and sanctity of his 
manners than by the purity of his doctrine. Having, by an. en- 
larged pursuit of learning, attained to a great variety of useful 
knowledge in the different branches of literature, he set himself to 
the study of divinity in the sacred sources of that science, which 
are the Holy Scriptures, the tradition of the Church as explained 
in its councils, and the approved writings of its eminent pastors. 
In the great dangers and necessities of the Church he was drawn out 
of his solitude, and made priest of Antioch by the patriarch St. An- 
astasius. Upon the death of John, the Patriarch of Alexandria, St. 




September 14.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



397 



Eulogius was raised to that patriarchal dignity toward the close 
of the year 583. About two years after his promotion, our Saint 
was obliged to make a journey to Constantinople, in order to con- 
cert measures concerning certain affairs of his Church. He met at 
court St. Gregory the Great, and contracted with him a holy 
friendship, so that, from that time, they seemed to be one heart and 
one soul. Among the letters of St. Gregory, we have several ex- 
tant which he wrote to our Saint. St. Eulogius composed many 
excellent works against different heresies, and died in the year 606. 

Reflection. — We admire the great actions and the glorious 
triumph of the Saints ; yet it is not so much in these that their 
sanctity consisted, as in the constant habitual heroic disposition of 
their souls. There is no one who does not sometimes do good ac- 
tions ; but he can never be called virtuous who does well only by 
humor, or by fits and starts, not by steady habits. 

SEPTEMBER 14.— THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS 
OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 



ONSTANTINE was still wavering between Christianity and 
idolatry when a luminous cross appeared to him in the 
heavens, bearing the inscription, " In this sign shalt thou 




conquer." He became a Christian, and triumphed over his ene- 
mies, who were, at the same time, the enemies of the faith. A 



398 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [September 15. 



few years later, his saintly mother having found the cross on which 
our Saviour suffered, the feast of the " Exaltation" was established 
in the Church ; but it was only at a later period still, namely, after 
the Emperor Heraclius had achieved three great and wondrous 
victories over Chosroes, King of Persia, who had possessed him- 
self of the holy and precious relic, that this festival took a more 
general extension, and was invested with a higher character of 
solemnity. The feast of the " Finding" was thereupon instituted, 
in memory of the discovery made by St. Helena ; and that of the 
" Exaltation" was reserved to celebrate the triumphs of Heraclius. 
The greatest power of the Catholic world was at that time centred 
in the Empire of the East, and was verging toward its ruin, when 
God put forth his hand to save it : the re-establishment of the Cross 
at Jerusalem was the sure pledge thereof. This great event oc- 
curred in 629. 

Reflection — Herein is found the accomplishment of the 
Saviour's word : If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all 
things to myself." 



OBLE in birth, rich, and exceedingly beautiful, Catherine 



had as a child rejected the solicitations of the world, and 



begged her Divine Master for some share in His sufferings. 
At sixteen years of age she found herself promised in marriage 
to a young nobleman of dissolute habits, who treated her with 
such harshness that, after five years, wearied out by his cruelty, 
she somewhat relaxed the strictness of her life and entered into 
the worldly society of Genoa. At length, enlightened by divine 
grace as to the danger of her state, she resolutely broke with the 
world and gave herself up to a life of rigorous penance and prayer. 
The charity with which she devoted herself to the service of the 
hospitals, undertaking the vilest of offices with joy, induced her 
husband to amend his evil ways and he died penitent. Her 
heroic fortitude was sustained by the constant thought of the Holy 
Souls, whose sufferings were revealed to her, and whose state she 
has described in a treatise full of heavenly wisdom. A long and 
grievous malady during the last years of her life only served to 
perfect her union with God, till, worn out in body and purified in 
soul, she breathed her last on September 14th, 15 10. 



SEPTEMBER 15.— ST. CATHERINE OF GENOA. 




September 1 6.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



399 




Reflection. — The constant thought of purgatory will help us 
not only to escape its dreadful pains, but also to avoid the least 
imperfection which hinders our approach to God. 

SEPTEMBER 16. — ST. CYPRIAN, BISHOP, MARTYR. 

YPRTAN was an African of noble birth but of evil life, a 
pagan, and a teacher of rhetoric. In middle life he was con- 
verted to Christianity, and shortly after his baptism was or- 
dained priest, and made Bishop of Carthage, notwithstanding his 
resistance. When the persecution of Decius broke out, he fled 
from his episcopal city, that he might be the better able to minister 
to the wants of his flock, but returned on occasion of a pestilence. 
Later on he was banished, and saw in a vision his future martyr- 
dom. Being recalled from exile, sentence of death was pronounced 
against him, which he received with the words " Thanks be to 
God." His great desire was to die whilst in the act of preaching 
the faith of Christ, and he had the consolation of being surrounded 
at his martyrdom by crowds of his faithful children. He was be- 
headed on the 14th September, a.d. 258, and was buried with great 
solemnity. Even the pagans respected his memory. 

Reflection. — The duty of alms-giving is declared both by 




400 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [September 1 7. 




nature and revelation : by nature, because it flows from the prin- 
ciple imprinted within us of doing to others as we would they 
should do to us; by revelation, in many special commands of 
Scripture, and in the precept of divine charity which binds us to 
love God for His own sake, and our neighbor for the sake of God. 



SEPTEMBER 17. — ST. LAMBERT, BISHOP, MARTYR. 

T. LAMBERT was a native of Maestricht. His father en- 
trusted his education to the holy Bishop St. Theodard, and 
on that good man being assassinated, Lambert was chosen 
his successor. A revolution breaking out which overturned the 
kingdom of Austrasia, our Saint was banished from his see on ac- 
count of his devotion to his sovereign. He retired to the monas- 
tery of Stavelo, and there obeyed the rule as strictly as the young- 
est novice could have done. One instance will suffice to show 
with how perfect a sacrifice of himself he devoted his heart to 
serve God. As he was rising one night in winter to his private 
devotions, he happened to let fall his wooden sandal or slipper. 
The abbot, without asking who had caused the noise, gave orders 
that the offender should go and pray before the cross, which stood 
before the church door. Lambert, without making any answer, 
went out as he was, barefoot, and covered only with his hair shirt; 





and in this condition he prayed, kneeling before the cross, where 
he was found some hours after. At the sight of the holy bishop 
the abbot and the monks fell on the ground and asked his par- 
don. " God forgive you," said he, " for thinking you stand in 
need of pardon for this action. As for myself, is it not in cold 
and nakedness that, according to St. Paul, I am to tame my flesh 
and to serve God ?" While St. Lambert enjoyed the quiet of holy 
retirement, he wept to see the greatest part of the churches of 
France laid waste. In the mean time the political clouds began 
to break away, and Lambert was restored to his see, but his zeal 
in suppressing the many and notorious disorders which existed in 
his diocese led to his assassination on the 17th of September, 709. 

Reflection. — How noble and heroic is this virtue of fortitude ! 
how necessary for every Christian, especially for a pastor of souls, 
that neither worldly views nor fears may ever in the least warp 
his integrity or blind his judgment ! 

SEPTEMBER 18.— ST. THOMAS OF VILLANOVA. 

T. THOMAS, the glory of the Spanish Church in the six- 
teenth century, was born a.d. 1488. A thirst for the science 
of the Saints led him to enter the house of the Austin Friars 
at Salamanca. Charles V. listened to him as an oracle, and ap- 




402 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[September 19. 



pointed him Archbishop of Valencia. On being led to his throne 
in church, he pushed the silken cushions aside, and with tears 
kissed the ground. His first visit was to the prison ; the sum with 
which the chapter presented him for his palace was devoted to the 
public hospital. As a child he had given his meal to the poor, and 
two thirds of his episcopal revenues were now annually spent in 
alms. He daily fed five hundred needy persons, brought up him- 
self the orphans of the city, and sheltered the neglected foundlings 
with a mother's care. During his eleven years' episcopate not 
one poor maiden was married without an alms from the Saint. 




Spurred by his example, the rich and the selfish became liberal and 
generous; and when, on the Nativity of our Lady, a.d. 1555, St. 
Thomas came to die, he was well-nigh the only poor man in 
his see. 



Reflection. — "Answer me, O sinner!" St. Thomas would say, 
" what can you purchase with your money better or more neces- 
sary than the redemption of your sins ?" 

SEPTEMBER 19.— ST. JANUARIUS, MARTYR. 

ANY centuries ago, St. Januarius died for the faith in the 
persecution of Diocletian, and to this day God confirms the 
faith of His Church, and works a continual miracle, through 
the blood which Januarius shed for Him. The Saint was Bishop 




September 19.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



403 



of Ben even turn, and on one occasion he travelled to Misenum in 
order to visit a deacon named Sosius. During this visit Januarius 
saw the head of Sosius, who was singing the Gospel in the church, 
girt with flames, and took this for a sign that ere long Sosius 
would wear the crown of martyrdom. So it proved. Shortly 
after Sosius was arrested, and thrown into prison. There St. Jan- 
uarius visited and encouraged him, till the bishop also was ar- 
rested in turn. Soon the number of the confessors was swollen 
by some of the neighboring clergy. They were exposed to the 
wild beasts in the amphitheatre. The beasts, however, did them 




no harm ; and at last the Governor of Campania ordered the Saints 
to be beheaded. Little did the heathen governor think that he was 
the instrument in God's hand of ushering in the long succession 
of miracles which attest the faith of Januarius. The relics of St. 
Januarius rest in the cathedral of Naples, and it is there that the 
liquefaction of his blood occurs. The blood is congealed in two 
glass vials, but when it is brought near the martyr's head it melts 
and flows like the blood of a living man. 

Reflection. — Thank God who has given you superabundant 
motives for your faith; and pray for the spirit of the first Chris- 
tians, the spirit which exults and rejoices in belief. 



404 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [September 20. 



SEPTEMBER 20.— SS. EUSTACHIUS AND COMPANIONS, 

MARTYRS. 

iffa? USTACHIUS, called Placidus before his conversion, was a 
distinguished officer of the Roman army under the Emperor 
Trajan. One day, whilst hunting a deer, he suddenly per- 
ceived between the horns of the animal the image of our crucified 
Saviour. Responsive to what he considered a voice from heaven, 
he lost not a moment in becoming a Christian. In a short time 
he lost all his possessions and his position, and his wife and chil- 
dren were taken from him. Reduced to the most abject poverty^ 
he took service with a rich land-owner to tend his fields. In the 
mean time the empire suffered greatly from the ravages of barba* 
rians. Trajan sought out our Saint, and placed him in command 





of the troops sent against the enemy. During this campaign he 
found his wife and children, whom he despaired of ever seeing 
again. Returning home victorious, he was received in triumph 
and loaded with honors ; but the emperor having commanded him 
to sacrifice to the false gods, he refused. Infuriated at this, Trajan 
ordered Eustachius with his wife and children to be exposed to 
two starved lions; but instead of harming these faithful servants 
of God, the beasts merely frisked and frolicked about them. The 
emperor, grown more furious at this, caused the martyrs to be 



September 21.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



405 



shut up inside a brazen bull, under which a fire was kindled, and 
in this horrible manner they were roasted to death. 

Reflection. — It is not enough to encounter dangers with 
resolution ; we must with equal courage and constancy vanquish 
pleasure and softer passions, or we possess not the virtue of true 
fortitude. 



SEPTEMBER 21. — ST. MATTHEW, APOSTLE. 



NE day, as our Lord was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He 
saw, sitting at the receipt of custom, Matthew the publican, 
whose business it was to collect the taxes from the people 
for their Roman masters. Jesus said to him, " Follow Me ;" and 




leaving all, Matthew arose and followed Him. Now the publi- 
cans were abhorred by the Jews as enemies of their country, out- 
casts, and notorious sinners, who enriched themselves by extor- 
tion and fraud. No Pharisee would sit with one at table. Our 
Saviour alone had compassion for them. So St. Matthew made a 
great feast, to which he invited Jesus and His disciples, with a 
number of these publicans, who henceforth began eagerly to listen 
to Him. It was then, in answer to the murmurs of the Pharisees, 
that He said, " They that are in health need not the physician. I 



406 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[September 22. 



have not come to call the just, but sinners to penance." After the 
Ascension, St. Matthew remained some years in Judaea, and there 
wrote his Gospel, to teach his countrymen that Jesus was their 
true Lord and King, foretold by the Prophets. St. Matthew after- 
ward preached the faith far and wide, and is said to have finished 
his course in Parthia. 

Reflection. — Obey all inspirations of our Lord as promptly 
as St. Matthew, who, at a single word, " laid down," says St. Brid- 
get, " the heavy burden of the world to put on the light and sweet 
yoke of Christ." 

SEPTEMBER 22.— THE THEBAN LEGION. 

'mI^ H E Theban legion numbered more than six thousand men. 
'J^J^ They marched from the East into Gaul, and proved their 
loyalty at once to their Emperor and their God. They were 
encamped near the Lake of Geneva, under the Emperor Maxi- 
mian, when they got orders to turn their swords against the Chris- 




tian population, and refused to obey. In his fury, Maximian or- 
dered them to be decimated. The order was executed once and 
again, but they endured this without a murmur or an effort to de- 
fend themselves. St. Maurice, the chief captain in this legion of 



September 23.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



407 



martyrs, encouraged the rest to persevere and follow their com- 
rades to heaven. " Know, O Emperor," he said, " that we are 
your soldiers, but we are servants also of the true God. In all 
things lawful we will most readily obey, but we cannot stain our 
hands in this innocent blood. We have seen our comrades slain, 
and we rejoice at their honor. We have arms, but we resist not, 
for we had rather die without shame than live by sin." As the 
massacre began, these generous soldiers flung down their arms, 
offered their necks to the sword, and suffered themselves to be 
butchered in silence. 

Reflection. — Thank God for every slight and injury you 
have to bear. An injury borne in meekness and silence is a true 
victory. It is the proof that we are good soldiers of Jesus Christ, 
disciples of that heavenly wisdom which is first pure, then peace- 
able. 



SEPTEMBER 23.— ST. THECLA, VIRGIN, MARTYR. 



T. THECLA is one of the most ancient, as she is one of the 
most illustrious, Saints in the calendar of the Church. It 
was at Iconium that St. Paul met St. Thecla, and kindled the 




love of virginity in her heart. She had been promised in marriage 
to a young man who was rich and generous. But at the Apostle's 



408 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [SEPTEMBER 24. 



words she died to the thought of earthly espousals ; she forgot her 
beauty ; she was deaf to her parents' threats, and at the first oppor- 
tunity she fled from a luxurious home and followed St. Paul. The 
rage of her parents and of her intended spouse followed hard upon 
her ; and the Roman power did its worst against the virgin whom 
Christ had chosen for His own. She was stripped and placed in 
the public theatre ; but her innocence shrouded her like a garment. 
Then the lions were let loose against her ; they fell crouching at 
her feet, and licked them as if in veneration. Even fire could not 
harm her. Torment after torment was inflicted upon her without 
effect, till at last her Spouse spoke the word and called her to 
Himself, with the double crown of virginity and martyrdom on 
her head. 

Reflection. — It is purity in soul and body which will make 
you strong in pain, in temptation, and in the hour of death. Imi- 
tate the purity of this glorious virgin, and take her for your spe- 
cial patroness in your last agony. 

SEPTEMBER 24.— THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY OF MERCY. 

T. PETER, of the noble family of Nolasco, was born in Lan- 
jkS) guedoc, about 1189. At the age of twenty-five he took avow 
of chastity, and made over his vast estates to the Church. 
Some time after, he conceived the idea of establishing an order 
for the redemption of captives. The divine will was soon mani- 
fested. The Blessed Virgin appeared on the same night to Peter, 
to Raymund of Pennafort, his confessor, and to James, King of 
Arragon, his ward, and bade them prosecute without fear their 
holy designs. After great opposition, the Order was solemnly es- 
tablished, and approved by Gregory IX., under the name of Our 
Lady of Mercy. By the grace of God, and under the protection of 
His Virgin-Mother, the Order spread rapidly, its growth being in- 
creased by the charity and piety of its members, who devoted them- 
selves not only to collecting alms for the ransom of the Christians, 
but even gave themselves up to voluntary slavery to aid the good 
work. It is to return thanks to God and the Blessed Virgin that 
a feast was instituted which was observed in the Order of Mercy, 
then in Spain and France, and at last extended to the whole 
Church by Innocent XII., and the 24th September named as the 
day on which it is to be observed. 



September 25.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



409 




Reflection. — St. Peter Nolasco and his knights were laymen, 
not priests, and yet they considered the salvation of their neigh- 
bor intrusted to them. We can each of us by counsel, by prayer, 
but above all by holy example, assist the salvation of our breth- 
ren, and thus secure our own. 



SEPTEMBER 25.— ST. FIRMIN, BISHOP, MARTYR.— ST. FIN- 

BARR, BISHOP. 

-yX^T. FIRMIN was a native of Pampelone, in Navarre, initiated 
Vo) in the Christian faith by Honestus, a disciple of St. Satur- 
ninus of Toulouse, and consecrated bishop by St. Honora- 
tus, successor to St. Saturninus, in order to preach the Gospel in 
the remoter parts of Gaul. He preached the faith in the coun- 
tries of Agen, Anjou, and Beauvais, and being arrived at Amiens, 
there chose his residence, and founded there a numerous Church 
of faithful disciples. He received the crown of martyrdom in 
that city, whether under the prefect, Rictius Varus, or in some 
other persecution from Decius, in 250, to Diocletian, in 303, is 
uncertain. 

St. Finbarr, who lived in the sixth century, was a native of 
Connaught, and instituted a monastery or school at Lough Eire, 
to which such numbers of disciples flocked, as changed, as it were, 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [SEPTEMBER 26. 



a desert into a large city. This was the origin of the city of 
Cork, which was built chiefly upon stakes, in marshy little 
islands formed by the river Lea. The right name of our 
Saint, under which he was baptized, was Lochan ; the surname 
Finbarr, or Barr the White, was afterward given him. He 
was Bishop of Cork seventeen years, and died in the midst of his 
friends at Cloyne, fifteen miles from Cork. His body was buried 
in his own cathedral at Cork, and his relics, some years after, 
were put in a silver shrine, and kept there, this great church bear- 
ing his name to this day. St. Finbarr's cave or hermitage was 




•shown in a monastery which seems to have been begun by our 
Saint, and stood to the west of Cork. 

SEPTEMBER 26.— SS. CYPRIAN AND JUSTINA, MARTYRS. 



HE detestable superstition of St. Cyprian's idolatrous parents 
devoted him from his infancy to the devil, and he was 
brought up in all the impious mysteries of idolatry, as- 
trology, and the black art. When Cyprian had learned all the 
extravagances of these schools of error and delusion, he hesitated 
at no crimes, blasphemed Christ, and committed secret murders. 
There lived at Antioch a young Christian lady called Justina, of 




September 26.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



411 



high birth and great beauty. A pagan nobleman fell deeply in 
love with her, and finding her modesty inaccessible, and her reso- 
lution invincible, he applied to Cyprian for assistance. Cyprian, 
no less smitten with the lady, tried every secret with which 
he was acquainted to conquer her resolution. Justina, per- 
ceiving herself vigorously attacked, studied to arm herself by 
prayer, watchfulness, and mortification against all his artifices 
and the power of his spells. Cyprian finding himself worsted by 
a superior power, began to consider the weakness of the infernal 
spirits, and resolved to quit their service and become a Christian. 




Agladius, who had been the first suitor to the holy virgin, was 
likewise converted and baptized. The persecution of Diocletian 
breaking out, Cyprian and Justina were seized, and presented to 
the same judge. She was inhumanly scourged, and Cyprian was 
torn with iron hooks. After this they were both sent in chains to 
Diocletian, who commanded their heads to be struck off, which 
sentence was executed. 

Reflection. — If the errors and disorders of St. Cyprian show 
the degeneracy of human nature corrupted by sin, and enslaved to 
vice, his conversion displays the power of grace and virtue to re- 
pair it. Let us beg of God to send us grace to resist temptation, 
and to do His holy will in all things. 



4 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[September 27. 



SEPTEMBER 27.— SS. COSMAS AND DAMIAN, MARTYRS. 



AINTS Cosmas and Damian were brothers, and born in 



Arabia, but studied the sciences in Syria, and became emi- 



nent for their skill in physic. Being Christians, and full of 
that holy temper of charity in which the spirit of our divine reli- 
gion consists, they practised their profession with great applica- 
tion and wonderful success, but never took any fee. They were 
loved and respected by the people on account of the good offices 
received from their charity, and for their zeal for the Christian 
faith, which they took every opportunity to propagate. When 



the persecution of Diocletian began to rage, it was impossible for 
persons of so distinguished a character to lie concealed. They 
were therefore apprehended by the order of Lysias, Governor of 
Cilicia, and after various torments were bound hand and foot and 
thrown into the sea. 

Reflection. — We may sanctify our labor or industry, if actu- 
ated by the motive of charity toward others, even whilst we fulfil 
the obligation we owe to ourselves and our families of procuring 
an honest and necessary subsistence, which ofitself is no less noble 
a virtue, if founded in motives equally pure and perfect. 





September 28.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 413 
SEPTEMBER 28.— ST. WENCESLAS, MARTYR. 

ENCESLAS was the son of a Christian Duke of Bohemia, 
but his mother was a hard and cruel pagan. Through 
the care of his holy grandmother, Ludmilla, herself a 
martyr, Wenceslas was educated in the true faith, and imbibed a 
special devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. On the death of his 
father, his mother, Drahomira, usurped the government and passed 
a series of persecuting laws. In the interests of the faith, Wen- 
ceslas claimed and obtained, through the support of the people, a 
large portion of the country as his own kingdom. His mother 




secured the apostasy and alliance of her second son, Boleslas, who 
became henceforth her ally against the Christians. Wenceslas 
meanwhile ruled as a brave and pious king, provided for all the 
needs of his people, and when his kingdom was attacked, over- 
came in single combat, by the sign of the Cross, the leader of an 
invading army. In the service of God he was most con- 
stant, and planted with his own hands the wheat and grapes 
for the Holy Mass, at which he never failed daily to assist. His 
piety was the occasion of his death. Once, after a banquet at his 
brother's palace, to which he had been treacherously invited, he 
went, as was his wont at night, to pray before the tabernacle. 
There, at midnight on the feast of the Angels, a.d. 938, he received 
liis crown of martyrdom, his brother dealing him the death-blow. 




414 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [September 29. 



Reflection. — St. Wenceslas teaches us that the safest place to 
meet the trials of life, or to prepare for the stroke of death, is be- 
fore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. 

SEPTEMBER 29.— ST. MICHAEL, ARCHANGEL. 

I-CA-EL," or "Who is like to God ?" Such was the cry 
of the great Archangel when he smote the rebel Lucifer 
in the conflict of the heavenly hosts, and from that hour 
he has been known as " Michael," the captain of the armies of 
God, the type of divine fortitude, the champion of every faithful 
soul in strife with the powers of evil. Thus he appears in Holy 
Scripture as the guardian of the children of Israel, their comfort 
and protector in times of sorrow or conflict. He it is who 
prepares for their return from the Persian captivity, who leads 
the valiant Maccabees to victory, and who rescues the body of 
Moses from the envious grasp of the Evil One. And since Christ's 
coming the Church has ever venerated St. Michael as her special 
patron and protector. She invokes him byname in her confession 




of sin, summons him to the side of her children in the agony of 
death, and chooses him as their escort from the chastening flames 
of purgatory to the realms of holy light. Lastly, when Antichrist 
shall have set up his kingdom on earth, it is Michael who will un- 



September 30.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



415 



furl once more the standard of the Cross, sound the last trump, 
and binding together the false prophet and the beast, hurl them for 
all eternity into the burning pool. 

Reflection. — "Whenever," says Saint Bernard, " any grievous 
temptation or vehement sorrow oppresses thee, invoke thy guar- 
dian, thy leader ; cry out to him, and say, ' Lord, save us, lest 
we perish !' " 

SEPTEMBER 30.-ST. JEROME, DOCTOR. 

fT. JEROME, born in Dalmatia, a.d. 329, was sent to school 
at Rome. His boyhood was not free from fault. His thirst 
for knowledge was excessive, and his love of books a passion. 
He had studied under the best masters, visited foreign cities, and 
devoted himself to the pursuit of science. But Christ had need 
of his strong will and active intellect for the service of His Church. 
St. Jerome felt and obeyed the call, made a vow of celibacy, fled 
from Rome to the wild Syrian desert, and there for four years 




learnt in solitude, penance, and prayer a new lesson of divine 
wisdom. This was his novitiate. The Pope soon summoned him 
to Rome, and there put upon the now famous Hebrew scholar the 
task of revising the Latin Bible, which was to be his noblest 



416 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[October i. 



work. Retiring thence to his beloved Bethlehem, the eloquent 
hermit poured forth from his solitary cell for thirty years a stream 
of luminous writings upon the Christian world. 

Reflection. — " To know," says St. Basil, "how to submit thy- 
self with thy whole soul, is to know how to imitate Christ." 

OCTOBER i. — ST. REMIGIUS, BISHOP. 

Sir) EMIGIUS, or Remi, was born of noble and pious parents. 
At the age of twenty-two, in spite of the canons and of his 
own reluctance, he was acclaimed Archbishop of Rheims. 
He was unusually tall, his face impressed with blended majesty and 
serenity, his bearing gentle, humble, and retiring. He was learned 
and eloquent, and had the gift of miracles. His pity and charity 
were boundless, and in toil he knew no weariness. His body was 
the outward expression of a noble and holy soul, breathing the 
spirit of meekness and compunction. For so choice a workman 
God had fitting work; The South of France was in the hands of 




Arians, and the pagan Franks were wresting the North from the 
Romans. St. Remigius confronted Clovis, their king, and con- 
verted and baptized him at Christmas, a.d. 496. With him he 
gained the whole Frank nation. He threw down the idol altars, 



October 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



417 



built churches, and appointed bishops. He withstood and silenced 
the Arians, and converted so many that he left France a Catholic 
kingdom, its king the oldest and at the time the only crowned son 
of the Church. He died a.d. 533, after an episcopate of seventy- 
four years, the longest on record. 

Reflection. — Few men have had such natural advantages and 
such gifts of grace as St. Remi, and few have done so great a 
work. Learn from him to bear the world's praise as well as its 
scorn with a lowly and chastened heart. 

1/ OCTOBER 2.— THE HOLY GUARDIAN ANGELS. 

ife^ OD does not abandon to mere chance any of His handi- 
*^yr works ; by His providence He is everywhere present ; not 
a hair falls from the head or a sparrow to the ground with- 
out His knowledge. Not content, however, with yielding such 
familiar help in all things, not content with affording that exist- 
ence which He communicates and perpetuates through every 
living being, He has charged His angels with the ministry of 




watching and safeguarding every one of His creatures that behold 
not His face. Kingdoms have their angels assigned to them, and 
men have their angels ; these latter it is whom religion designates 
as the Holy Guardian Angels. Our Lord says in the Gospel, 



4i8 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[October 3. 



" Beware lest ye scandalize any of these little ones, for their angels 
in heaven see the face of my Father." The existence of Guardian 
Angels is, hence, a dogma of the Christian faith : this being so, 
what ought not our respect be for that sure and holy intelligence 
that is ever present at our side ; and how great should our solici- 
tude be, lest, by any act of ours, we offend those eyes which are 
ever bent upon us in all our ways ! 

Reflection. — Ah ! let us not give occasion, in the language 
of Holy Scripture, to the angels of peace to weep bitterly. 



OCTOBER 3.— ST. GERARD, ABBOT. 

■\§£}T. GERARD was of a noble family of the county of Namur, 
w|S) France. An engaging sweetness of temper, and a strong 
inclination to piety and devotion, gained him from the cradle 
the esteem and affection of every one. Having been sent on an 
important mission to the Court of France, he was greatly edified 
at the fervor of the monks of St. Denis, at Paris, and earnestly 




desired to consecrate himself to God with them. Returning home 
he settled his temporal affairs, and went back with great joy to St. 
Denis's. He had lived ten years with great fervor in this monas- 
tery, when in 931 he was sent by his abbot to found an abbey upon 



October 4.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



419 



his estate at Brogne, three leagues from Namur. He settled this 
new abbey, and then built himself a little cell near the church, and 
lived in it a recluse until God called him to undertake the reform- 
ation of many monasteries, which he did successfully. When he 
had spent almost twenty years in these zealous labors, he shut 
himself up in his cell, to prepare his soul to receive the recompense 
of his labors to which he was called on the 3d of October in 959. 

Reflection. — Though we are in the world, let us strive to 
separate ourselves from it and consecrate ourselves to God, re- 
membering that " the world passeth away, but he that doth the 
will of God abideth forever." 

OCTOBER 4.— ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI. 

T. FRANCIS, the son of a merchant of Assisi, was born in 
that city a.d. 1182. Chosen by God to be a living manifes- 
tation to the world of Christ's poor and suffering life on 
earth, he was early inspired with a high esteem and burning love 




of poverty and humiliation. The thought of the Man of Sorrows, 
who had not where to lay His head, filled him with holy envy of 
the poor, and constrained him to renounce the wealth and worldly 
station which he abhorred. The scorn and hard usage which he 




420 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[October 5. 



met with from his father and townsmen when he appeared among 
them in the garb of poverty were delightful to him. " Now," he 
exclaimed, " I can say truly, ' Our Father who art in heaven.' " 
But divine love burned in him too mightily not to kindle like de- 
sires in other hearts. Many joined themselves to him, and were 
constituted by Pope Innocent III. into a religious Order, which 
spread rapidly throughout Christendom. St. Francis, after visit- 
ing the East in the vain quest of martyrdom, spent his life like his 
Divine Master — now in preaching to the multitudes, now amid 
desert solitudes in fasting and contemplation. During one of 
these retreats he received on his hands, feet, and side the print of 
the five bleeding wounds of Jesus. With the cry, " Welcome, sis- 
ter Death," he passed to the glory of his God October 4th, 1226. 

Reflection. — "My God and my all," St. Francis's constant 
prayer, explains both his poverty and his wealth. 

OCTOBER 5.— ST. PLACID, MARTYR. 



T. PLACID was born in Rome, in the year 515, of a patrician 
family, and at seven years of age was taken by his father 
to the monastery of Subiaco. At thirteen years of age he 




followed St. Bernard to the new foundation at Monte Cassino, 
where he grew up in the practice of a wonderful austerity and in- 



October 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



421 



nocence of life. He had scarcely completed his twenty-first year 
when he was selected to establish a monastery in Sicily upon some 
estates which had been given by his father to St. Benedict. He 
spent four years in building his monastery, and the fifth had not 
elapsed before an inroad of barbarians burned every thing to the 
ground, and put to a lingering death not only St. Placid and thirty 
monks who had joined him, but also his two brothers, Eutychius 
and Victorinus, and his holy sister Flavia, who had come to visit 
him. The monastery was rebuilt, and still stands under his invo- 
cation. 

Reflection. — Adversity is the touchstone of the soul, because 
it discovers the character of the virtue which it possesses. One 
act of thanksgiving when matters go wrong with us is worth a 
thousand thanks when things are agreeable to our inclinations. 



OCTOBER 6— ST. BRUNO. 



gRUNO was born at Cologne, about a.d. 1030, of an illus- 
2) trious family. He was endowed with rare natural gifts, 
which he cultivated with care at Paris. He became canon 




of Cologne, and then of Rheims, where he had the direction of 
theological studies. On the death of the bishop the see fell for a 



422 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[October 7. 



time into evil hands, and Bruno retired with a few friends into 
the country. There he resolved to forsake the world, and live a 
life of retirement and penance. With six companions he applied 
to Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, who led them into a wild solitude 
called the Chartreuse. There they lived in poverty, self-denial, 
and silence, each apart in his own cell, meeting only for the wor- 
ship of God, and employing themselves in copying books. From 
the name of the spot the Order of St. Bruno was called the Car- 
thusian. Six years later, Urban II. called Bruno to Rome, that he 
might avail himself of his guidance. Bruno tried to live there as 
he had lived in the desert ; but the echoes of the great city dis- 
turbed his solitude, and, after refusing high dignities, he wrung 
from the Pope permission to resume his monastic life in Calabria. 
There he lived, in humility and mortification and great peace, 
till his blessed death in 1101. 

Reflection. — " O everlasting kingdom," said St. Augustine ; 
" kingdom of endless ages, whereon rests the untroubled light 
and the peace of God which passeth all understanding, where the 
souls of the Saints are in rest, and everlasting joy is on their 
heads, and sorrow and sighing have fled away ! When shall I 
come and appear before God?" 



OCTOBER 7.— ST. MARK, POPE. 

T. MARK was by birth a Roman, and served God with such 
fervor among the clergy of that Church, that, advancing 
continually in sincere humility and the knowledge and sense 
of his own weakness and imperfections, he strove every day to 
surpass himself in the fervor of his charity and zeal, and in the 
exercise of all virtues. The persecution ceased in the West, in 
the beginning of the year 305 ; but was revived a short time after 
by Maxentius. St. Mark abated nothing of his watchfulness, but 
endeavored rather to redouble his zeal during the peace of the 
Church ; knowing that if men sometimes cease openly to persecute 
the faithful, the devil never allows them any truce, and his snares 
are generally most to be feared in the time of the calm. St. Mark 
succeeded St. Sylvester in the apostolic chair on the 18th of 
January, 336. He held that dignity only eight months and twenty 
days, dying on the 7th of October following. He was buried in a 
cemetery in the Ardeatine Way, which has since borne his name. 




October 8.] LIVES OF THE saints. 




Reflection. — A Christian ought to be afraid of no enemy 
more than himself, whom he carries always about with him, and 
from whom he is not able to flee. He should therefore never 
cease to cry out to God, " Unless thou, O Lord, art my light and 
support, I watch in vain." 



OCTOBER 8.— ST. BRIDGET OF SWEDEN. 

RIDGET was born of the Swedish royal family, a.d. 1304. 
In obedience to her father, she was married to Prince Ulpho 
of Sweden, and became the mother of eight children, one of 
whom, Catherine, is honored as a Saint. After some years, she 
and her husband separated by mutual consent. He entered the 
Cistercian Order, and Bridget founded the Order of St. Saviour, 
m the Abbey of Wastein, in Sweden. In 1344 she became a 
widow, and thenceforth received a series of the most sublime reve- 
lations, all of which she scrupulously submitted to the judgment 
of her confessor. By the command of our Lord, Bridget went on 
a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and amidst the very scenes of the 
Passion was further instructed in the sacred mysteries. She died 
a.d. 1373. 

Reflection. — " Is confession a matter of much time or ex- 




424 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [OCTOBER 9. 




pense?" asks St. John Chrysostom. " Is it a difficult and painful 
remedy ? Without cost or hurt, the medicine is ever ready to 
restore you to perfect health." 



OCTOBER 9.— ST. DIONYSIUS AND HIS COMPANIONS, MAR- 
TYRS. — ST. LOUIS BERTRAND. 

F all the Roman missionaries sent into Gaul, St. Dionysius 
carried the faith the furthest into the country, fixing his see 
at Paris, and by him and his disciples the sees of Chartres, 
Senlis, Meaux, and Cologne were erected in the fourth century. 
During the persecution of Valerian he was arrested and thrown 
into prison, and after remaining there for some time was beheaded, 
together with St. Rusticus, a priest, and Eleutherius, a deacon. 

St. Louis Bertrand was born at Valencia, in Spain, a.d. 1526, 
of the same family as St. Vincent Ferrer. In 1545, after severe 
trials, he was professed in the Dominican Order, and at the age of 
twenty-five was made master of novices, and trained up many great 
servants of God. When the plague broke out in Valencia he de- 
voted himself to the sick and dying, and with his own hands 
buried the dead. In 1562 he obtained leave to embark for the 
American mission, and there converted vast multitudes to the 
faith. He was favored with the gift of miracles, and while 





preaching in his native Spanish, was understood in various lan- 
guages. After seven years he returned to Spain, to plead the 
cause of the oppressed Indians, but he was not permitted to return 
and labor among them. He spent his remaining days toiling in 
his own country, till at length, in 1580, he was carried from the 
pulpit in the Cathedral at Valencia to the bed from whence he 
never rose. He died on the day he had foretold — October 9th, 
1581. 

Reflection. — The Saints fasted, toiled, and wept, not only for 
love of God, but for fear of damnation. How shall we, with our 
self-indulgent lives and unexamined consciences, face the judg- 
ment-seat of Christ? 

OCTOBER 10.— ST. FRANCIS BORGIA 



RANCIS BORGIA, Duke of Gandia and Captain-General 
of Catalonia, was one of the handsomest, richest, and most 
honored nobles in Spain, when, in 1539, there was laid upon 
him the sad duty of escorting the remains of his sovereign, Queen 
Isabella, to the royal burying-place at Granada. The coffin had 
to be opened for him that he might verify the body before it was 
placed in the tomb, and so foul a sight met his eyes that he vowed 



426 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [October II. 




never again to serve a sovereign who could suffer so base a change. 
It was some years before he could follow the call of his Lord ; at 
length he entered the Society of Jesus to cut himself off from 
any chance of dignity or preferment. But his Order chose him 
to be its head. The Turks were threatening Christendom, and 
St. Pius V. sent his nephew to gather Christian princes into a 
league for its defence. The holy Pope chose Francis to accom- 
pany him, and, worn out though he was, the Saint obeyed at once. 
The fatigues of the embassy exhausted what little life was left. 
St. Francis died on his return to Rome, October ioth, 1572. 

Reflection. — St. Francis Borgia learnt the worthlessness of 
earthly greatness at the funeral of Queen Isabella. Do the deaths 
of friends teach us aught about ourselves ? 



OCTOBER 11.— ST. TARACHUS AND HIS COMPANIONS. 

N the year 304, Tarachus, Probus, and Andronicus, differing 
in age and nationality, but united in the bonds of faith, being 
denounced as Christians to Numerian, Governor of Cilicia, 
were arrested at Pompeiopolis, and conducted to Tharsis. They 
underwent a first examination in that town, after which their limbs 
were torn with iron hooks, and they were taken back to prison 



October 12.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



427 




covered with wounds. Being afterwards led to Mopsuesta, they 
were submitted to a second examination, ending in a manner 
equally cruel as the first. They underwent a third examination 
at Anazarbis, followed by greater torments still. The governor, 
unable to shake their constancy, had them kept imprisoned that he 
might torture them further at the approaching games. They were 
borne to the amphitheatre, but the most ferocious animals, on 
being let loose on them, came crouching to their feet and licked 
their wounds. The judge, reproaching the jailers with conniv- 
ance, ordered the martyrs to be despatched by the gladiators. 

Reflection. — Such is true Christian devotion. " Neither death 
nor life shall be able to separate us from the love that is in Christ 
Jesus." 



OCTOBER 12.— ST. WILFRID, BISHOP. 

QUICK walker, expert at all good works, with never a 
sour face" — such was the great St. Wilfrid, whose glory 
it was to secure the happy links which bound England 
to Rome. He was born about the year 634, and was trained by the 
Celtic monks at Lindisfarne in the peculiar rites and usages of the 
British Church. Yet even as a boy Wilfrid longed for perfect con- 
formity in discipline, as in doctrine, with the Holy See, and at 




428 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[October 13. 



the first chance set off himself for Rome. On his return, he 
founded at Ripon a strictly Roman monastery, under the rule of 
St. Benedict. In the year 664 he was elected Bishop of Lindis- 
farne, and five years later was transferred to the see of York. He 
had to combat the passions of wicked kings, the cowardice of 
worldly prelates, the errors of holy men. He was twice exiled and 
once imprisoned ; yet the battle which he fought was won. He 
swept away the abuses of many years and a too national system, 
and substituted instead a vigorous Catholic discipline, modelled 
and dependent on Rome. He died October 12th, 709, and at his 




death was heard the sweet melody of the angels conducting his 
soul to Christ. 



Reflection. — To look towards Rome is an instinct planted in 
us for the preservation of the faith. Trust in the Vicar of Christ 
necessarily results from the reign of His love in our hearts. 

OCTOBER 13.— ST. EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 

DWARD was unexpectedly raised to the throne of England 
at the age of forty years, twenty-seven of which he had passed 
in exile. On the throne, the virtues of his earlier years, 
simplicity, gentleness, lowliness, but above all his angelic purity, 




October 13.] lives OF THE saints. 



429 



shone with new brightness. By a rare inspiration of God, though 
he married to content his nobles and people, he preserved perfect 
chastity in the wedded state. So little did he set his heart on 
riches, that thrice when he saw a servant robbing his treasury he 
let him escape, saying the poor fellow needed the gold more than 
he. He loved to stand at his palace-gate, speaking kindly to the 
poor beggars and lepers who crowded about him, and many of 
whom he healed of their diseases. The long wars had brought 
the kingdom to a sad state, but Edward's zeal and sanctity soon 
wrought a great change. His reign of twenty-four years was one 




of almost unbroken peace, the country grew prosperous, the 
ruined churches rose under his hand, the weak lived secure, and 
for ages afterwards men spoke with affection of the " laws of good 
St. Edward." The holy king had a great devotion to building 
and enriching churches. Westminster Abbey was his latest and 
noblest work. He died January 5th, 1066. 

Reflection. — David longed to build a temple for God's ser- 
vice. Solomon reckoned it his glory to accomplish the work. 
But we, who have God made flesh dwelling in our tabernacles, 
ought to think no time, no zeal, no treasures too much to devote 
to the splendor and beauty of a Christian church. 



430 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[October 14. 



OCTOBER 14.— ST. CALLISTUS, POPE, MARTYR. 

c>— > < — y 

JT^ARLY in the third century, Callistus, then a deacon, was in- 
JiUVj trusted by Pope St. Zephyrinus with the rule of the clergy, 
and set by him over the cemeteries of the Christians at 
Rome ; and, at the death of Zephyrinus, Callistus, according to the 
Roman usage, succeeded to the Apostolic See. A decree is ascribed 
to him appointing the four fasts of the Ember seasons, but his 
name is best known in connection with the old cemetery on the 
Appian Way, which was enlarged and adorned by him, and is 
called to this day the Catacomb of St. Callistus. During the per- 




secution under the Emperor Severus, St. Callistus was driven to 
take shelter in the poor and populous quarters of the city; yet, in 
spite of these troubles, and of the care of the Church, he made dil- 
igent search for the body of Calipodius, one of his clergy who had 
suffered martyrdom shortly before, by being cast into the Tiber. 
When he had found it he was full of joy, and buried it, with 
hymns of praise. Callistus was martyred October 14th, 223. 

Reflection. — -In the body of a Christian we see that which has 
been the temple of the Holy Ghost, which even now is precious 
in the eyes of God, who will watch over it, and one day raise it 
up in glory to shine forever in His kingdom. Let our actions 
bear witness to our belief in these truths. 



October 15.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



431 



OCTOBER 15.— ST. TERESA. 

~^&hT HEN a child of seven years, Teresa ran away from her 
home at Avila in Spain, in the hope of being martyred 
by the Moors. Being brought back and asked the reason 
of her flight, she replied, " I want to see God, and I must die 
before I can see Him." She then began with her brother to build 
a hermitage in the garden, and was often heard repeating " For- 
ever, forever." Some years later she became a Carmelite nun. 
Frivolous conversations checked her progress towards perfec- 
tion, but at last, in her thirty-first year, she gave herself wholly 




to God. A vision showed her the very place in hell to which her 
own light faults would have led her ; and she lived ever after in 
the deepest distrust of self. She was called to reform her Order, 
favored with distinct commands from our Lord, and her heart was 
pierced with divine love ; but she dreaded nothing so much as 
delusion, and to the last acted only under obedience to her con- 
fessors, which both made h£r strong and kept her safe. She died 
on October 4th, 1582. 

Reflection. — "After all I die a child of the Church." These 
were the Saint's last words. They teach us the lesson of her life 
— to trust in humble, childlike obedience to our spiritual guides as 
the surest means of salvation. 



432 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[October 16. 



OCTOBER 16.— ST. GALL, ABBOT. 




T. GALL was born in Ireland soon after the middle of the 



sixth century, of pious, noble, and rich parents. When St. 



Columban left Ireland, St. Gall accompanied him into Eng- 
land, and afterward into France, where they arrived in 585. St. 
Columban founded the monastery of Anegray, in a wild forest in 
the diocese of Besancon, and two years afterward another in Luxeu. 
Being driven thence by King Theodoric, the Saints both withdrew 
into the territories of Theodebert. St. Columban, however, retired 
into Italy, but St. Gall was prevented from bearing him company 



by a grievous fit of illness. St. Gall was a priest before he left 
Ireland, and having learned the language of the country where 
he settled, near the Lake of Constance, he converted to the faith 
a great number of idolaters. The cells which this Saint built 
there for those who desired to serve God with him, he gave to 
the monastery which bears his name. A synod of bishops, with 
the clergy and people, earnestly desifed to place the Saint in the 
episcopal see of Constance ; but his modesty refused the dignity. 
He died in the year 646. 

Reflection. — " If any one would be My disciple," says our 
Saviour, " let him deny himself." The denial of self is, then, the 
royal road to perfection. 




October 17.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



433 



OCTOBER 17.— ST. HEDWIGE.— BLESSED MARGARET MARY 

ALACOQUE. 

fT. HEDWIGE, the wife of Henry, Duke of Silesia, and the 
mother of his six children, led a humble, austere, and most 
holy life amidst all the pomp of royal state. Devotion 
to the Blessed Sacrament was the key-note of her life. Her val- 
ued privilege was to supply the bread and wine for the Sacred 
Mysteries, and she would attend each morning as many Masses as 
were celebrated. After the death of her husband she retired to the 
Cistercian convent of Trebnitz, where she lived under obedience to 




her daughter Gertrude, who was abbess of the monastery, growing 
day by day in holiness, till God called her to Himself, a.d. 1242. 

Margaret Mary was born at Terreau in Burgundy, on the 
22d July, 1647. During her infancy she showed a wonderfully 
sensitive horror of the very idea of sin. In 167 1 she entered the 
Order of the Visitation, at Paray-le-Monial, and was professed the 
following year. After purifying her by many trials, Jesus appeared 
to her in numerous visions, displaying to her His Sacred Heart, 
sometimes burning as a furnace, and sometimes torn and bleeding 
•on account of the coldness and sins of men. In 1675 the great 
revelation was made to her that she, in union with Father de la 
Colombiere, of the Society of Jesus, was to be the chief instrument 
for instituting the feast of the Sacred Heart, and for spreading 



434 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[October 18. 



that devotion throughout the world. She died on the 17th Octo- 
ber, 1690. 

Reflection. — Love for the Sacred Heart especially honors the 
Incarnation, and makes the soul grow rapidly in humility, gen- 
erosity, patience, and union with its Beloved. 

OCTOBER 18.— ST. LUKE. 

LUKE, a physician at Antioch, and a painter, became a 
vS) convert of St. Paul, and afterwards his fellow-laborer. He 
is best known to us as the historian of the New Testament. 
Though not an eye-witness of our Lord's life, the Evangelist dili- 
gently gathered information from the lips of the Apostles, and 
wrote, as he tells us, all things in order. The Acts of the Apostles 
were written by this Evangelist as a sequel to his Gospel, bringing 
the history of the Church down to the first imprisonment of St. 
Paul at Rome. The humble historian never names himself, but by 
his occasional use of " we" for " they" we are able to detect his 




presence in the scenes which he describes. We thus find that he 
sailed with St. Paul and Silas from Troas to Macedonia; stayed 
behind apparently for seven years at Philippi, and, lastly, shared 
the shipwreck and perils of the memorable voyage to Rome. 
Here his own narrative ends, but from St. Paul's Epistles we learn 



October 19.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 435 

that St. Luke was his faithful companion to the end. He died a 
martyr's death some time afterwards in Achaia. 

Reflection. — Christ has given all He had for thee ; do thou 
give all thou hast for Him. 

OCTOBER 19.— ST. PETER OF ALCANTARA. 

ETER, while still a youth, left his home at Alcantara in 
Spain, and entered a convent of Discalced Franciscans. He 
rose quickly to high posts in the Order, but his thirst for 
penance was still unappeased, and in 1539, being then forty years 
old, he founded the first convent of the " Strict Observance." The 
cells of the friars resembled graves rather than dwelling-places. 
That of St. Peter himself was four feet and a half in length, so 
that he could never lie down ; he ate but once in three days; his 
sackcloth habit and a cloak were his only garments, and he never 
covered his head or feet. In the bitter winter he would open the 
door and window of his cell that, by closing them again, he might 




experience some sensation of warmth. Amongst those whom he 
trained to perfection was St. Teresa. He read her soul, approved 
of her spirit of prayer, and strengthened her to carry out her re- 
forms. St. Peter died, with great joy, kneeling in prayer, October 
1 8th, 1562, at the age of sixty-three. 




43^ 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [OCTOBER 20. 



Reflection. — If men do not go about barefoot now, nor under- 
go sharp penances, as St. Peter did, there are many ways of 
trampling on the world ; and our Lord teaches them when He 
finds the necessary courage. 



OCTOBER 20.— ST. JOHN CANTIUS. 

T. JOHN was born at Kenty in Poland, a.d. 1403, and studied 
W=S) at Cracow with great ability, industry, and success, while 
his modesty and virtue drew all hearts to him. He was, for 
a short time, in charge of a parish ; but he shrank from the burden 
of responsibility, and returned to his life of professor at Cracow. 
There, for many years, he lived a life of unobtrusive virtue, self- 
denial, and charity. His love for the Holy See led him often in 
pilgrimage to Rome, on foot and alone, and his devotion to the 
Passion drew him once to Jerusalem, where he hoped to win a 
martyr's crown by preaching to the Turks. He died a.d. 1473, at 
the age of seventy. 




Reflection. — He who orders all his doings according to the 
will of God, may often be spoken of by the world as simple and 
stupid ; but, in the end, he wins the esteem and confidence of the 
world itself, and the approval and peace of God. 



October 21.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



437 



OCTOBER 21.— ST. URSULA, VIRGIN AND MARTYR. 

NUMBER of Christian families had intrusted the educa- 
tion of their children to the care of the pious Ursula, and 
some persons of the world had in like manner placed them- 
selves under her direction. England being then harassed by the 
Saxons, Ursula deemed that she ought, after the example of many 
of her compatriots, to seek an asylum in Gaul. She met with an 
abiding-place on the borders of the Rhine, not far from Cologne, 
where she hoped to find undisturbed repose ; but a horde of Huns 
having invaded the country, she was exposed, together with all 
those who were under her guardianship, to the most shameful 
outrages. Without wavering, they preferred one and all to meet 
death rather than incur shame. Ursula herself gave the example, 
and was, together with her companions, cruelly massacred in the 
year 453. The name of St. Ursula has from remote ages been 
held in great honor throughout the Church ; she has always been 
regarded as the patroness of young persons and the model of 
teachers. 





Reflection— In the estimation of the wise man, "the guard- 
ing of virtue" is the most important part of the education of 
youth. 



438 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[October 23. 



OCTOBER 22.— ST. MELLO, BISHOP.— ST. HILARION, ABBOT. 



JjjS T. MELLO is said to have been a native of Great Britain ; 



his zeal for the faith engaged him in the sacred ministry, and 



God having blessed his labors with wonderful success, he 
was consecrated first bishop of Rouen in Normandy, which see 
he is said to have held forty years. He died in peace, about the 



St. Hilarion was born of heathen parents, near Gaza, and 
was converted while studying grammar in Alexandria. Shortly 
after, he visited St. Antony, and, still only in his fifteenth year, 
he became a solitary in the Arabian desert. A multitude of 
monks, attracted by his sanctity, peopled the desert where he lived. 
In consequence of this, he fled from one country to another, seek- 
ing to escape the praise of men ; but everywhere his miracles 
of mercy betrayed his presence. Even his last retreat at Cyprus 
was broken by a paralytic, who was cured by St. Hilarion, and 
then spread the fame of the Saint. He died with the words, " Go 
forth, my soul ; why -dost thou doubt ? Nigh seventy years hast 
thou served God, and dost thou fear death ?" 



BOUT the year 361, Julian, uncle to the emperor of that 



name, and like his nephew an apostate, was made Count of 



the East. He closed the Christian churches at Antioch, 
and when St. Theodoret assembled the Christians in private, he 
was summoned before the tribunal of the count and most in- 
humanly tortured. His arms and feet were fastened by ropes to 
pulleys, and stretched until his body appeared nearly eight feet 
long, and the blood streamed from his sides. " O most wretched 
man," he said to his judge, " you know well that at the day of 
judgment the crucified God whom you blaspheme will send you 
and the tyrant whom you serve to hell." Julian trembled at this 
awful prophecy, but he had the Saint despatched quickly by the 
sword, and in a little while the judge himself was arraigned be- 
fore the judgment-seat of God. 




beginning of the fourth century. 



OCTOBER 23.— ST. THEODORET, MARTYR. 




Reflection. — Those who do not go down to hell in spirit are 
very likely to go there in reality. Take care to meditate upon the 



October 24.] lives OF the saints. 



439 




four last things, and to live in holy fear. You will learn to love 
God better by thinking how He punishes those who do not love 
Him. 



OCTOBER 24.— ST. MAGLOIRE, BISHOP. 

^&T. MAGLOIRE was born in Brittany towards the end of the 
vS) fifth century. When he and his cousin St. Sampson came 
of an age to choose their way in life, Sampson retired 
into a monastery, and Magloire returned home, where he lived 
in the practice of virtue. Amon, Sampson's father, having been 
cured by prayer of a dangerous disease, left the world, and with 
his entire family consecrated himself to God. Magloire was so 
affected at this that, with his father, mother, and two brothers, 
he resolved to fly the world, and they gave all their goods to the 
poor and the Church. Magloire and his father attached them- 
selves to Sampson, and obtained his permission to take the mon- 
astic habit in the house over which he presided. When Sampson 
was consecrated bishop, Magloire accompanied him in his apos- 
tolical labors in Armorica, or Brittany, and at his death he suc- 
ceeded him in the Abbey of Dole, and in the episcopal character. 
After three years he resigned his bishopric, being seventy years 
old, and retired into a desert on the continent, and some time after 



440 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[October 25. 




into the isle of Jersey, where he founded and governed a monas- 
tery of sixty monks. He died about the year 575. 



Reflection. — " Be mindful of them that have rule over you, 
who have spoken to you the word of God, whose faith follow, con- 
sidering the end." 



OCTOBER 25.— SS. CRISPIN AND CRISPINIAN, MARTYRS. 

tHESE two glorious martyrs came from Rome to preach the 
faith in Gaul toward the middle of the third century. Fix- 
ing their residence at Soissons, they instructed many in the 
faith of Christ which they preached publicly in the day, and at 
night they worked at making shoes, though they are said to have 
been nobly born, and brothers. The infidels listened to their in- 
structions, and were astonished at the example of their lives, espe- 
cially of their charity, disinterestedness, heavenly piety, and con- 
tempt of glory and all earthly things : and the effect was the 
conversion of many to the Christian faith. The brothers had con- 
tinued their employment several years when a complaint was 
lodged against them. The emperor, to gratify their accusers and 
give way to his savage cruelty, gave orders that they should be 
convened before Rictius Varus, the most implacable enemy of the 



October 26.] lives OF THE SAINTS. 



441 




Christians. The martyrs were patient and constant under the 
most cruel torments, and finished their course by the sword about 
the year 287. 

Reflection. — Of how many may it be said that " they labor in 
vain," since God is not the end and purpose that inspires the la- 
bor! 

OCTOBER 26.— ST. EVARISTUS, POPE AND MARTYR. 

T. EVARISTUS succeeded St. Anacletus in the see of Rome, 
in the reign of Trajan, governed the Church nine years, and 
died in 112. The institution of cardinal priests is by some 
ascribed to him, because he first divided Rome into several titles 
or parishes, assigning a priest to each ; he also appointed seven 
deacons to attend the bishop. He conferred holy orders thrice in 
the month of December, when that ceremony was most usually 
performed, for holy orders were always conferred in seasons ap- 
pointed for fasting and prayer. St. Evaristus was buried near St 
Peter's tomb on the Vatican. 

Reflection. — The disciples of the apostles, by assiduous med- 
itation on heavenly things, were so swallowed up in the life to 
come, that they seemed no longer inhabitants of this world. If 




442 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [October 27. 




Christians esteem and set their hearts on earthly goods, and lose 
sight of eternity in the course of their actions, they are no longer 
animated by the spirit of the primitive Saints, and are become chil- 
dren of this world, slaves to its vanities, and to their own irregular 
passions. If we do not correct this disorder of our hearts, and 
conform our interior to the spirit of Christ, we cannot be entitled 
to his promises. 



OCTOBER 27.— ST. FRUMENTIUS, BISHOP. 

T. FRUMENTIUS was yet a child when his uncle, Meropius 
of Tyre, took him and his brother Edesius on a voyage to 
Ethiopia. In the course of their voyage the vessel touched 
at a certain port, and the barbarians of that country put the crew 
and all the passengers to the sword, except the two children. They 
were carried to the king, at Axuma, who, charmed with the wit 
and sprightliness of the two boys, took special care of their edu- 
cation ; and, not long after, made Edesius his cup-bearer, and Fru- 
mentius, who was the elder, his treasurer and secretary of state; 
on his death-bed, he thanked them for their services, and, in 
recompense, gave them their liberty. After his death, the queen 
begged them to remain at court, and assist her in the government 
of the state until the young king came of age. Edesius went back 




October 28.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 443 




to Tyre, but St. Athanasius ordained Frumentius bishop of the 
Ethiopians, and vested with this sacred character, he gained great 
numbers to the faith, and continued to feed and defend his hock 
till it pleased the Supreme Pastor to recompense his fidelity and 
labors. 

Reflection. — " The soul that journeys in the light and the 
truths of the faith is safe against all error." 



OCTOBER 28.— SS. SIMON AND JUDE. 




IMON was a simple Galilean, called by our Lord to be one 
of the pillars of His Church. Zelotes, ''the zealot," was the 



surname which he bore among the disciples. Armed with 
this zeal, he went forth to the combat against unbelief and sin, and 
made conquest of many souls for his Divine Lord. 

The Apostle Jude, whom the Church commemorates on the 
same day, was a brother of St. James the Less. They were called 
'•brethren of the Lord," on account of their relationship to His 
Blessed Mother. St. Jude preached first in Mesopotamia, as St. 
Simon did in Egypt ; and finally they both met in Persia, where 
they won their crown together. 



444 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [OCTOBER 29. 




Reflection. — Zeal is an ardent love which makes a man fear- 
less in defence of God's honor, and earnest at all costs to make 
known the truth. If we would be children of the Saints, we must 
be zealous for the faith. 



OCTOBER 29.— ST. NARCISSUS, BISHOP. 

T. NARCISSUS was consecrated bishop of Jerusalem about 
the year 180. He was already an old man, and God attested 
his merits by many miracles, which were long held in mem- 
ory by the Christians of Jerusalem. One Holy Saturday in the 
church the faithful were in great trouble, because no oil could be 
found for the lamps which were used in the Paschal feast. St. 
Narcissus bade them draw water from a neighboring well, and, 
praying over it, told them to put it in the lamps. It was changed 
into oil, and long after some of this oil was preserved at Jerusalem 
in memory of the miracle. But the very virtue of the Saint made 
him enemies, and three wretched men charged him with an atrocious 
crime. They confirmed their testimony by horrible imprecations: 
the first prayed that he might perish by fire, the second that he 
might be wasted by leprosy, the third that he might be struck blind, 
if they charged their bishop falsely. The holy bishop had long 
desired a life of solitude, and he withdrew secretly into the desert, 




October 30.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 445 




leaving the Church in peace. But God spoke for His servant, and 
the bishop's accusers suffered the penalties they had invoked. 
Then Narcissus returned to Jerusalem and resumed his office. 
He died in extreme old age, bishop to the last. 



Reflection. — God never fails those who trust in Him; He 
guides them through darkness and through trials secretly and 
surely to their end, and in the evening time there is light. 

OCTOBER 30.— ST. MARCELLUS, THE CENTURION, MARTYR. 

HE birthday of the Emperor Maximian Herculeus in the year 
298 was celebrated with extraordinary feasting and solem- 
nity. Marcellus, a Christian centurion or captain in the 
legion of Trajan, then posted in Spain, not to defile himself with 
taking part in those impious abominations, left his company, de- 
claring aloud that he was a soldier of Jesus Christ, the eternal 
king. He was at once committed to prison. When the festival 
was over, Marcellus was brought before a judge, and having 
declared his faith, was sent under a strong guard to Aurelian 
Agricolaus, vicar to the prefect of the praetorium, who passed 
sentence of death upon him. St. Marcellus was forthwith led to 
execution, and beheaded on the 30th of October. Cassian, the 
secretary or notary of the court, refused to write the sentence pro- 



446 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[October 31. 




nounced against the martyr, because it was unjust. He was im- 
mediately hurried to prison, and was beheaded, about a month 
after, on the 3d of December. 

Reflection. — " We are ready to die rather than to transgress the 
laws of God," exclaimed one of the Machabees. This sentiment 
should ever be that of a Christian in presence of temptation. 



OCTOBER 31.— ST. QUINTIN, MARTYR. 

^^^T. QUINTIN was a Roman, descended of a senatorial 
family. Full of zeal for the kingdom of Jesus Christ, he 
left his country, and, attended by St. Lucian of Beauvais, 
made his way to Gaul. They preached the faith together in that 
country till they reached Amiens in Picardy, where they parted. 
Lucian went to Beauvais, and having sown the seeds of divine 
faith in the hearts of many, received the crown of martyrdom in 
that city. St. Quintin stayed at Amiens, endeavoring by his 
prayers and labors to make that country a portion of our Lord's 
inheritance. He was seized, thrown into prison, and loaded with 
chains. Finding the holy preacher proof against promises and 
threats, the magistrate condemned him to the most barbarous tor- 
ture. His body was then pierced with two iron wires from the 
neck to the thighs, and iron nails were thrust under his nails, 
and in his flesh in many places, particularly into his skull ; and. 



November i.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



447 









p3i 



Kg; 

w 



lastly, his head was cut off. His death happened on the 31st of 
October, 287. 

Reflection. — Let us bear in mind that the ills of this life are 
not worthy to be compared to the glory " God has reserved for 
those who love Him." 

NOVEMBER 1.— ALL-SAINTS. 

HE Church pays, day by day, a special veneration to some 
one of the holy men and women who have helped to estab- 
lish it by their blood, develop it by their labors, or edify it 
by their virtues. But, in addition to those whom the Church 
honors by special designation, or has inscribed in her calendar, 
how many martyrs are there whose names are not recorded ? How 
many humble virgins and holy penitents ? How many just and 
holy anchorites or young children snatched away in their innocence ? 
How many Christians who have died in grace, whose merits are 
known only to God, and who are themselves known only in heaven ? 
Now should we forget those who remember us in their interces- 
sions ? Besides, are they not our brethren, our ancestors, friends, 
and fellow-Christians, with whom we have lived in daily com- 
panionship — in other words, our own family? Yea, it is one 
family ; and our place is marked out in this home of eternal light 
and eternal love. 



448 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [NOVEMBER 2. 



Reflection. — Let us have a solicitude to render ourselves 
worthy of " that chaste generation, so beautiful amid the glory 
where it dwells." 

V NOVEMBER 2. — ALL-SOULS. 
*HE Church teaches us that the souls of the just who have 
left this world soiled with the stain of venial sin remain 
for a time in a place of expiation, where they suffer such 
punishment as may be due to their offences It is a matter 
of faith that these suffering souls are relieved by the interces- 
sion of the Saints in heaven and by the prayers of the faithful 




upon earth. To pray for the dead is, then, both an act of charity 
and of piety. We read in Holy Scripture : " It is a holy and 
wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed 
from sins." And when our Lord inspired St. Odilo, Abbot of 
Cluny, towards the close of the tenth century, to establish in his 
Order a general commemoration of all the faithful departed, it was 
soon adopted by the whole Western Church, and has been continued 
unceasingly to our day. Let us, then, ever bear in mind the dead 
and offer up our prayers for them. By showing this mercy to 
the suffering souls in purgatory, we shall be particularly entitled 
to be treated with mercy at our departure from this world, and to 
share more abundantly in the general suffrages of the Church, 
continually offered for all who have slept in Christ. 



November 2.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



449 



Si 



ST. MALACHI, BISHOP. 

URING his childhood Malachi would often separate himself 
from his companions to converse in prayer with God. At 
the age of twenty-five he was ordained priest ; his devotion 
and zeal led to his being consecrated Bishop of Connor, and shortly 
afterwards he was made Archbishop of his native city Armagh. 
This see having by a long-standing abuse been held as an heirloom 
in one family, it required on the part of the Saint no little tact and 
firmness to allay the dissensions caused by his election. One day, 
while St. Malachi was burying the dead, he was laughed at by his 




sister. When she died, he said many Masses for her. Some time 
afterwards, in a vision, he saw her, dressed in mourning, standing 
in a church-yard, and saying that she had not tasted food for 
thirty days. Remembering that it was just thirty days since he last 
offered the Adorable Sacrifice for her, he began again to do so, and 
was rewarded by other visions, in the last of which he saw her 
within the church, clothed in white, near the altar, and surrounded 
by bright spirits. He twice made a pilgrimage to Rome to con- 
sult Christ's Vicar, the first time returning as Papal Legate, amid 
the joy of his people, with the pall for Armagh ; but the second 
time bound for a happier home. He was taken ill at Clairvaux. 
He died, aged fifty-four, where he fain would have lived, in St. 
Bernard's monastery, on the 2d of November, 1148. 



45o 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[November 3. 



Reflection. — Our Lord said to St. Gertrude, " God accepts 
every soul you set free, as if you had redeemed him from cap- 
tivity, and will reward you in a fitting time for the benefit you 
have conferred." 

NOVEMBER 3.-ST. HUBERT, BISHOP. 

T. HUBERT'S early life is so obscured by popular traditions 
that we have no authentic account of his actions. He is said 
to have been passionately addicted to hunting, and was en- 
tirely taken up in worldly pursuits. One thing is certain : that 
he is the patron saint of hunters. Moved by divine grace, he 




resolved to renounce the world. His extraordinary fervor, and 
the great progress which he made in virtue and learning, strongly 
recommended him to St. Lambert, Bishop of Maestricht, who 
ordained him priest, and intrusted him with the principal share in 
the administration of his diocese. That holy prelate being bar- 
barously murdered in 681, St. Hubert was unanimously chosen 
his successor. With incredible zeal he penetrated into the most 
remote and barbarous places of Ardenne, and abolished the wor- 
ship of idols ; and as he performed the office of the apostles, God 
bestowed on him a like gift of miracles. He died on the 30th 
of May, in 727, reciting to his last breath the Creed and the 
Lord's Prayer. 




November 4.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



451 



Reflection. — What the Wise Man has said of Wisdom may be 
applied to Grace : " That it ordereth the means with gentleness, 
and attaineth its end with power." 

NOVEMBER 4.— ST. CHARLES BORROMEO. 

BOUT fifty years after the Protestant heresy had bioken 
out, our Lord raised up a mere youth to renew the 
face of His Church. In 1560 Charles Borromeo, then 
twenty-two years of age, was created cardinal, and by the side 
of his uncle, Pius IV., administered the affairs of the Holy See. 




His first care was the direction of the Council of Trent. He 
urged forward its sessions, guided its deliberations by con- 
tinual correspondence from Rome, and by his firmness carried it 
to its conclusion. Then he entered upon a still more arduous 
work — the execution of its decrees. As Archbishop of Milan, he 
enforced their observance, and thoroughly restored the discipline 
of his see. He founded schools for the poor, seminaries for the 
clerics, and by his community of Oblates trained his priests to 
perfection. Inflexible in maintaining discipline, to his flock he 
was a most tender father. He would sit by the road-side to teach 
a poor man the Pater and Ave, and would enter hovels the stench 
of which drove his attendants from the door. During the great 
plague, he refused to leave Milan, and was ever by the sick and 




452 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[November 5. 



dying, and sold even his bed for their support. So he lived, and 
so he died, a faithful image of the Good Shepherd, up to his last 
hour giving his life for his sheep. 

Reflection. — Daily resolutions to fulfil, at all cost, every duty 
demanded by God, is the lesson taught by St. Charles ; and a les- 
son we must learn if we would overcome our corrupt nature and 
reform our lives. 

NOVEMBER 5.-ST. BERTILLE, ABBESS. 

fT. BERTILLE was born of one of the most illustrious fam- 
ilies in the territory of Soissons, in the reign of Dagobert I., 
As she grew up, she learned perfectly to despise the world, 
and earnestly desired to renounce it. Not daring to tell this to 
her parents, she first consulted St. Ouen, by whom she was 
encouraged in her resolution. The Saint's parents were then 
made acquainted with her desire, which God inclined them not 
to oppose. They conducted her to Jouarre, a great monastery in 
Brie, four leagues from Meaux, where she was received with 




great joy and trained up in the strictest practice of monastic per- 
fection. By her perfect submission to all her sisters she seemed 
every one's servant, and acquitted herself with such great charity 
and edification that she was chosen prioress to assist the abbess 



November 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



453 



in her administration. About the year 646 she was appointed 
first abbess of the abbey of Chelles, which she governed for forty- 
six years with equal vigor and discretion, until she closed her 
penitential life in 692. 

Reflection. — It is written that the Saints raise themselves 
heavenward, going from virtue to virtue, as by steps. 

NOVEMBER 6. — ST. LEONARD. 

JT^EONARD, one of the chief personages of the court of Clovis, 
an( j for whom this monarch had stood as sponsor in bap- 
tism, was so moved by the discourse and example of St. 
Remigius that he relinquished the world in order to lead a more 
perfect life. The Bishop of Reims having trained Leonard to 
virtue, he became the apostle of such of the Franks as still re- 
mained pagans ; but fearing that he might be summoned to the 
court by his reputation for sanctity, he withdrew secretly to the 
monastery of Micy, near Orleans, and afterwards to the solitude of 
Noblac, near Limoges. His charity not allowing him to remain 




inactive while there was so much good to be done, he undertook 
the work of comforting prisoners, making them understand that 
the captivity of sin, was more terrible than any mere bodily con- 
straint. He won over a great many of these unfortunate persons. 



454 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [NOVEMBER 7. 



which gained for him many disciples, in whose behalf he founded 
a new monastery. St. Leonard died about the year 550. 

Reflection. — " The wicked shall be taken with his own iniqui- 
ties, and shall be held by the cords of his own sin." 

NOVEMBER 7.— ST. WILLIBRORD. 

ILLIBRORD was born in Northumberland a.d. 657, and 
when twenty years old, went to Ireland, to study under 
St. Egbert ; twelve years later, he felt drawn to convert 
the great pagan tribes who were hanging as a cloud over the 
north of Europe. He went to Rome for the blessing of the Pope, 
and with eleven companions reached Utrecht. The pagans 
would not accept the religion of their enemies the Franks; and 
St. Willibrord could only labor in the track of Pepin Heristal, 
•converting the tribes whom Pepin subjugated. At Pepin's 
urgent request, he again went to Rome, and was consecrated 
Archbishop of Utrecht. He was stately and comely in person, 
frank and joyous, wise in counsel, pleasant in speech, in every 
work of God strenuous and unwearied. Multitudes were con- 




verted, and the Saint built churches and appointed priests all over 
the land. He wrought many miracles, and had the gift of prophecy. 
He labored unceasingly as bishop for more than fifty years, beloved 
alike of God and of man, and died full of days and good works. 




November 9.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



455 



Reflection. — True zeal has its root in the love of God. It can 
never be idle ; it must labor, toil, be doing great things. It glows 
as fire ; it is, like fire, insatiable. See if this spirit be in you. 

NOVEMBER 8.— THE FEAST OF THE HOLY RELICS. 

ROTESTANTISM pretends to regard the veneration which 
the- Church pays to the relics of the Saints as a sin, and con- 
tends that this pious practice is a remnant of paganism. The 
Council of Trent, on the contrary, has decided that the bodies of 
the martyrs and other saints who were living members of Jesus 
Christ and temples of the Holy Ghost, are to be honored by the 
faithful. This decision was based upon the established usage of the 
earliest days of the Church, and upon the teaching of the Fathers 
and of the Councils. The Council orders, however, that all abuse 
of this devotion is to be avoided carefully, and forbids any relics to 
be exposed which have not been approved by the bishops, and these 
prelates are recommended to instruct the people faithfully in the 
teaching of the Church on this subject. While we regret, then, the 
errors of the impious and of heretics, let us profit by the advan- 
tages which we gain by hearkening to the voice of the Church. 




NOVEMBER 9.— ST. THEODORE TYRO, MARTYR. 

T. THEODORE was born of a noble family in the East, 
and enrolled while still a youth in the imperial army. Early 
in 306 the emperor put forth an edict requiring all Christians 
to offer sacrifice, and Theodore had just joined the legion and 
marched with them into Pontus, when he had to choose between 
apostasy and death. He declared before his commander that he 
was ready to be cut in pieces and offer up every limb to his Crea- 
tor who had died for him. Wishing to conquer him by gentleness, 
the commander left him in peace for a while, that he might think 
over his resolution ; but Theodore used his freedom to set on fire 
the great temple of Isis, and made no secret of this act. Still his 
judge entreated him to renounce his faith and save his life ; but 
Theodore made the sign of the cross, and answered : "As long as 
I have breath, I will confess the name of Christ." After cruel 
torture, the judge bade him think of the shame to which Christ 
had brought him. " This shame," Theodore answered, " I and all 
who invoke His name take with joy." He was condemned to be 
burnt. As the flame rose, a Christian saw his soul rise like a 
flash of light to heaven. 




456 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [NOVEMBER IO. 




Reflection. — We are enlisted in the same service as the holy 
martyrs, and we too must have courage and constancy if we would 
be perfect soldiers of Jesus Christ. Let us take our part with them 
in confessing the faith of Christ and despising the world, that we 
may have our part with them in Christ's kingdom. 



NOVEMBER 10.— ST. ANDREW AVELLINO. 

FTER a holy youth, Lancelot Avellino was ordained priest 
at Naples. At the age of thirty-six, he entered the Theatine 
Order, and took the name of Andrew, to show his love for 
the cross. For fifty years he was afflicted with a most painful rup- 
ture ; yet he would never use a carriage. Once when he was carry- 
ing the Viaticum, and a storm had extinguished the lamps, a 
heavenly light encircled him, guided his steps, and sheltered him 
from the rain. But as a rule, his sufferings were unrelieved by 
God or man. On the last day of his life, St. Andrew rose to say 
Mass. He was in his eighty-ninth year, and so weak that he could 
scarcely reach the altar. He began the " Judica," and fell forward 
in a fit of apoplexy. Laid on a straw mattress, his whole frame 
was convulsed in agony, while the fiend in visible form advanced to 
seize his soul. Then, as his brethren prayed and wept, the voice 
of Mary was heard, bidding the Saint's guardian angel send the 
tempter back to hell. A calm and holy smile settled on the fea- 




November II.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



457 




tures of the dying Saint, as, with a grateful salutation to the image 
of Mary, he breathed forth his soul to God. His death happened 
on the ioth of November, 1608. 



Reflection. — St. Andrew, who suffered so terrible an agony, 
is the special patron against sudden death. Ask him to be with 
you in your last hour, and to bring Jesus and Mary to your aid. 



NOVEMBER 11.— ST. MARTIN OF TOURS. 

HEN a mere boy, Martin became a Christian catechumen 
against his parents' wish ; and at fifteen was therefore 
seized by his father, a pagan soldier, and enrolled in the 
army. One winter's day, when stationed at Amiens, he met a beg- 
gar almost naked and frozen with cold. Having no money, he 
cut his cloak in two and gave him the half. That night he saw our 
Lord clothed in the half cloak, and heard him say to the angels, 
" Martin, yet a catechumen, hath wrapped me in this garment." 
This decided him to be baptized, and shortly after he left the army. 
He succeeded in converting his mother; but being driven from 
his home by the Arians, he took shelter with St. Hilary, and 
founded near Poitiers the first monastery in France. In 372, he 
was made Bishop of Tours. His flock, though Christian in name, 




458 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[November 12. 




was still pagan in heart. Unarmed^ and attended only by his 
monks, Martin destroyed the heathen temples and groves, and 
completed by his preaching and miracles the conversion of the 
people, whence he is known as the Apostle of Gaul. His last 
eleven years were spent in humble toil to atone for his faults, while 
God made manifest by miracles the purity of his soul. 

Reflection — It was for Christ crucified that St. Martin worked. 
Are you working for the same Lord? 



NOVEMBER 12. -ST. MARTIN, POPE. 

MARTIN, who occupied the Roman See from a.d. 649 to 
655, incurred the enmity of the Byzantine court by his ener- 
getic opposition to the Monothelite heresy, and the Exarch 
Olympius went so far as to endeavor to procure the assassination 
of the Pope as he stood at the altar in the church of St. Mary 
Major; but the would-be murderer was miraculously struck blind, 
and his master refused to have any further hand in the matter. 
His successor had no such scruples ; lie seized Martin, and conveyed 
him on board a vessel bound for Constantinople. After a three 
months' voyage, the island of Naxos was reached, where the Pope 



November 13.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



459 




was kept in confinement for a year, and finally, in 654, brought in 
chains to the imperial city. He was then banished to the Tauric 
Chersonese, where he lingered on for four months in sickness and 
starvation, till God released him by death on the 12th of Novem- 
ber, 655. 



Reflection. — There have been times in the history of Chris- 
tianity when its truths have seemed on the vefrge of extinction. 
But there is one Church whose testimony has never failed : it is 
the Church of St. Peter, the Apostolic and Roman See. Put 
your whole trust in her teaching. 

NOVEMBER 13.— ST. STANISLAS KOSTKA. 

T. STANISLAS was of a noble Polish family. At the age of 
fourteen he went with his elder brother Paul to the Jesuits' 
College at Vienna ; and though Stanislas was ever bright and 
sweet-tempered, his austerities were felt as a reproach by Paul, who 
shamefully maltreated him. This ill-usage and his own penances 
brought on a dangerous illness, and being in a Lutheran house 
he was unable to send for a priest. He now remembered to have 
read of his patroness, St. Barbara, that she never permitted her 
clients to die without the Holy Viaticum : he devoutly appealed to 




460 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [November 14. 




her aid, and she appeared with two .angels, who gave him the 
Sacred Host. He was cured of this illness by our Lady herself, 
and was bidden by her to enter the Society of Jesus. To avoid 
his father's opposition, he was obliged to fly from Vienna; and 
having proved his constancy by cheerfully performing the most 
menial offices, he was admitted to the novitiate at Rome. There 
he lived for ten short months marked by a rare piety, obedience, 
and devotion to his institute. He died, as he had prayed to die, 
on the feast of the Assumption, 1568, at the age of seventeen. 

Reflection. — St. Stanislas teaches us in every trial of life, and 
above all in the hour of death, to have recourse to our patron 
Saint, and to trust without fear to his aid. 

NOVEMBER 14.— ST. DIDACUS. 

T. DIDACUS was born in Spain, in the middle of the 
fifteenth century. He was remarkable from childhood for 
his love of solitude, and when a youth retired and led a 
hermit life, occupying himself with weaving mats, like the fathers 
of the desert. Aiming at still higher perfection, he entered the 
Order of St. Francis. His want of learning and his humility 
would not allow him to aspire to the priesthood, and he remained 




November 14.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 461 




a lay-brother till his death, perfect in his close observance of the 
vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and mortifying his will 
and his senses in every way that he could contrive. At one time 
he was sent by his superiors to the Canary Islands, whither he 
went joyfully, hoping to win the crown of martyrdom. Such, 
however, was not God's will, and after making many conversions 
by his example and holy words, he was recalled to Spain. There, 
after a long and painful illness, he finished his days, embracing 
the cross which he had so dearly loved through his life. He died 
with the words of the hymn " Dulce lignum" on his lips. 

Reflection. — If God be in your heart, He will be also on 
your lips ; for Christ has said, " From the abundance of the heart 
the mouth speaketh." 

ST. LAURENCE O'TOOL, ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN. 

T. LAURENCE, it appears, was born about the year 11 25. 
When only ten years old, his father delivered him up as a 
hostage to Dermod Mac Murchad, King of Leinster, who 
treated the child with great inhumanity, until his father obliged 
the tyrant to put him in the hands of the Bishop of Glendalough, 
in the county of Wicklow. The holy youth, by his fidelity in cor- 




462 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [NOVEMBER 1 4. 



responding with the divine grace, grew to be a model of virtues. 
On the death of the bishop, who was also abbot of the monastery, 
St. Laurence was chosen abbot in 1150, though but twenty-five 
years old, and governed his numerous community with wonderful 
virtue and prudence. In 1161, St. Laurence was unanimously 
chosen to fill the new metropolitan See of Dublin. About the 
year 1171, he was obliged, for the affairs of his diocese, to go 
over to England to see the king, Henry II., who was then at 
Canterbury. The Saint was received by the Benedictine monks 
of Christ Church with the greatest honor and respect. On the 




following day, as the holy archbishop was advancing to the 
altar to officiate, a maniac, who had heard much of his sanctity, 
and who was led on by the idea of making so holy a man an- 
other St. Thomas, struck him a violent blow on the head. 
All present concluded that he was mortally wounded ; but the 
Saint coming to himself, asked for some water, blessed it, and 
having his wound washed with it, the blood was immediately 
stanched, and the archbishop celebrated Mass. In 1175, Henry 
II. of England became offended with Roderic, the monarch 
of Ireland, and St. Laurence undertook another journey to 
England to negotiate a reconciliation between them. Henry 
was so moved by his piety, charity, and prudence, that he granted 
him every thing he asked, and left the whole negotiation to his 



November 15.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



463 



discretion. Our Saint ended his journey here below on the 14th 
of November, 1180, and was buried in the church of the abbey 
at Eu, on the confines of Normandy. 



NOVEMBER 15— ST. GERTRUDE, ABBESS. 




ERTRUD'E was born in the year 1263, of a noble Saxon 
family, and placed at the age of five for education in the 
Benedictine abbey of Rodelsdorf. Her strong mind was 
carefully cultivated, and she wrote Latin with unusual elegance 
and force; above all, she was perfect in humility and mortifi- 




cation, in obedience, and in all monastic observance. Her life 
was crowded with wonders. She has in obedience recorded some of 
her visions, in which she traces in words of indescribable beauty 
the intimate converse of her soul with Jesus and Mary. She was 
gentle to all, most gentle to sinners ; filled with devotion to the 
Saints of God, to the souls in purgatory, and above all to the 
Passion of our Lord and to His sacred Heart. She ruled her 
abbey with perfect wisdom and love for forty years. Her life was 
one of great and almost continual suffering, and her longing to be 
with Jesus was not granted till a.d. 1334, when she had reached 
her seventy-second year. 

Reflection. — No preparation for death can be better than to 




464 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[November 16. 



offer and resign ourselves anew to the Divine Will — humbly, lov- 
ingly, with unbounded confidence in the infinite mercy and good- 
ness of God. 

NOVEMBER 16.— ST. EDMUND OF CANTERBURY. 

fT. EDMUND left his home at Abingdon, a boy of twelve 
years old, to study at Oxford, and there protected himself 
against many grievous temptations by a vow of chastity, 
and by espousing himself to Mary for life. He was soon called 
to active public life, and as treasurer of the diocese of Salisbury 




showed such charity to the poor that the dean said he was rather 
the treasure than the treasurer of their church. In 1234 he was 
raised to the see of Canterbury, where he fearlessly defended the 
rights of Church and State against the avarice* and greed of 
Henry III. ; but finding himself unable to force that monarch to 
relinquish the livings which he kept vacant for the benefit of the 
royal coffers, Edmund retired into exile sooner than appear to 
connive at so foul a wrong. After two years spent in solitude 
and prayer, he went to his reward, and the miracles wrought at 
his tomb at Pontigny were so numerous that he was canonized in 
1246, within four years of his death. 



November 17.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



465 



Reflection. — The Saints were tempted even more than our- 
selves ; but they stood where we fall, because they trusted to Mary, 
and not to themselves. 

NOVEMBER 17. -ST. GREGORY THAUMATURGUS. 

■>-» 

>§^T. GREGORY was born in Pontus, of heathen parents. In 
Palestine, about the year 231, he studied philosophy under 
the great Origen, who led him from the pursuit of human 
wisdom to Christ, who is the Wisdom of God. Not lone after he 
was made Bishop of Neocaesarea in his own country. As he lay 




awake one night, an old man entered his room, and pointed to a 
lady of superhuman beauty and radiant with heavenly light. This 
old man was St. John the Evangelist; and the lady told him to 
give Gregory the instruction he desired. Thereupon he gave 
St. Gregory a creed which contained in all its fullness the doc- 
trine of the Trinity. St. Gregory set it in writing, directed all 
his preaching by it, and handed it down to his successors. Strong 
in this faith, he subdued demons, he foretold the future. At his 
word a rock moved from its place, a river changed its course, a 
lake was dried up. He converted his diocese, and strengthened 
those under persecution. He struck down a rising heresy; and 



466 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [NOVEMBER 1 8^ 



when he was gone, this creed preserved his flock from the Arian 
pest. St. Gregory died in the year 270. 

Reflection. — Devotion to the blessed Mother of God is the 
sure protection of faith in her Divine Son. Everv time that we 
invoke her, we renew our faith in the Incarnate God ; we reverse 
the sin and unbelief of our first parents ; we take our part with 
her who was blessed because she believed. 



NOVEMBER 18.— ST. ODO OF CLUNY. 

N Christmas-eve, a.d. 877, a noble of Aquitaine implored 
12/ our Lady to grant him a son. His prayer was heard; Odo 
was born, and his grateful father offered him to St. Martin. 
Odo grew in wisdom and in virtue, and his father longed to 
see him shine at court. But the attraction of grace was too 
strong. Odo's heart was sad and his health failed, until he 
forsook the world,- and sought refuge under the shadow of St. 
Martin at Tours. Later on, he took' the habit of St. Benedict at 



Baume, and was compelled to become abbot of the great abbey of 
Cluny, which was then building. He ruled it with the hand of a 
master and the winningness of a Saint. The Pope sent for him 
often to act as peacemaker between contending princes, and it was 



November 19.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



467 



on one of those missions of mercy that he was taken ill at Rome. At 
his urgent entreaty he was borne back to Tours, where he died at 
the feet of "his own St. Martin," a.d. 942. 

Reflection. — " It needs only," says Father Newman, " for a 
Catholic to show devotion to any Saint, in order to receive special 
benefits from his intercession." 

NOVEMBER 19.— ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY. 

^LIZABETH was daughter of a king of Hungary, and 
±L niece of St. Hedwige. She was betrothed in infancy to 
Louis, Landgrave of Thuringia, and brought up in his 
father's court. Not content with receiving daily numbers of poor 
in her palace, and relieving all in distress, she built several hos- 
pitals, where she served the sick, dressing the most repulsive sores 
with her own hands. Once as she was carrying in the folds of 
her mantle some provisions for the poor, she met her husband 
returning from the chase. Astonished to see her bending under 
the weight of her burden, he opened the mantle which she kept 




pressed against her, and found in it nothing but beautiful red 
and white roses, although it was not the season for flowers. Bid- 
ding her pursue her way, he took one of the marvellous roses, 
and kept it all his life. On her husband's death she was cruelly 



468 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[November 20. 



driven from her palace, and forced to wander through the streets 
with her little children, a prey to hunger and cold ; but she 
welcomed all her sufferings, and continued to be the mother of 
the poor, converting many by her holy life. She died in 1 231, at 
the age of twenty-four. 

Reflection. — This young and delicate princess made herself 
the servant and nurse of the poor. Let her example teach us to 
disregard the opinions of the world and to overcome our natural 
repugnances, in order to serve Christ in the persons of His poor. 

NOVEMBER 20.— ST. FELIX OF VALOIS. 

fT. FELIX was son of the Count of Valois. His mother 
throughout his youth did all she could to cultivate in him 
a spirit of charity. The unjust divorce between his parents 
matured a long-formed resolution of leaving the world ; and con- 
fiding his mother to her pious brother, Thibault, Count of Cham- 
pagne, he took the Cistercian habit at Clairvaux. His rare vir- 
tues drew on him such admiration that, with St. Bernard's con- 




sent, he fled to Italy, where he led an austere life with an aged 
hermit. At this time he was ordained priest, and his old counsel- 
lor having died, he returned to France, and for many years lived 
as a solitary at Cerfroid. Here God inspired him with the desire 



November 21.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 469 

of founding an Order for the redemption of Christian captives, 
and moved St. John of Matha, then a youth, to conceive a simi- 
lar wish. Together they drew up the rules of the Order of the Holy 
Trinity. Many disciples gathered round them ; and seeing that 
the time had come for further action, the two Saints made a 
pilgrimage to Rome to obtain the confirmation of the Order from 
Innocent III. Their prayer was granted, and the last fifteen 
years of Felix's long life were spent in organizing and develop- 
ing his rapidly increasing foundations. He died a.d. 1213. 

Reflection. — " Think how much,'' says St. John Chrysostom, 
" and how often thy mouth has sinned, and thou wilt devote thy- 
self entirely to the conversion of sinners. For by this one 
means thou wilt blot out all thy sins, in that thy mouth will be- 
come the mouth of God." 

NOVEMBER 21.— THE PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED 

VIRGIN MARY. 

ELIGIOUS parents never fail by devout prayer to conse- 
crate their children to the divine service and love, both be- 
fore and after their birth. Some amongst the Jews, not 
content with this general consecration of their children, offered 




them to God in their infancy, by the hands of the priests in the 
temple, to be lodged in apartments belonging to the temple, and 




470 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[November 22. 



brought up in attending the priests and Levitesinthe sacred minis- 
try. It is an ancient tradition, that the Blessed Virgin Mary was 
thus solemnly offered to God in the temple in her infancy. This 
festival of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, the Church cele- 
brates this day. The tender soul of Mary was then adorned with 
the most precious graces, an object of astonishment and praise to 
the angels, and of the highest complacence to the adorable Trinity ; 
the Father looking upon her as His beloved daughter, the Son as 
one chosen and prepared to become His mother, and the Holy 
Ghost as His darling spouse. Mary was the first who set up the 
standard of virginity ; and, by consecrating it by a perpetual vow 
to our Lord, she opened the way to all virgins who have since 
followed her example. 

Reflection. — Mary's first presentation to God was an offering 
most acceptable in His sight. Let our consecration of ourselves 
to God be made under her patronage, and assisted by her power- 
ful intercession and the union of her merits. 



NOVEMBER 22.-ST. CECILIA, VIRGIN, MARTYR. 

N the evening of her wedding-day, with the music of the 
marriage-hymn ringing in her ears, Cecilia, a rich, beauti- 
ful and noble Roman maiden, renewed the vow by which 
she had consecrated her virginity to God. " Pure be my heart 
and undefiled my flesh ; for I have a spouse you know not of — an 
angel of my Lord." The heart of her young husband Valerian 
was moved by her words ; he received baptism, and within a few 
days he and his brother Tiburtius, who had been brought by him 
to a knowledge of the faith, sealed their confession with their 
blood. Cecilia only remained. " Do you not know," was her 
answer to the threats of the prefect, " that I am the bride of my 
Lord Jesus Christ ?" The death appointed for her was suffoca- 
tion, and she remained a day and a night in a hot-air bath, heated 
seven times its wont. But " the flames had no power over her 
body, neither was a hair of her head singed." The lictor sent to 
dispatch her struck with trembling hand the three blows which 
the law allowed, and left her still alive. For two days and nights 
Cecilia lay with her head half severed on the pavement of her 
bath, fully sensible, and joyfully awaiting her crown ; on the 





third the agony was over, and a.d. 177, the virgin Saint gave back 
her pure spirit to Christ. 



Reflection. — St. Cecilia teaches us to rejoice in every sacri- 
fice as a pledge of our love of Christ, and to welcome sufferings 
and death as hastening our union with Him. 



NOVEMBER 23.— ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. 




T. CLEMENT is said to have been a convert of noble birth, 
1 and to have been consecrated bishop by St. Peter himself. 



With the words of the Apostles still ringing in his ears, he 
began to rule the Church of God; and thus he was among the 
first, as he was among the most illustrious, in the long line of 
those who have held the place and power of Peter. He lived 
at the same time and in the same city with Domitian, the perse- 
cutor of the Church ; and besides external foes he had to contend 
with schism and rebellion from within. The Corinthian Church 
was torn by intestine strife, and its members set the authority of 
their clergy at defiance. It was then that St. Clement interfered 
in the plenitude of his apostolic authority, and sent his famous 
epistle to the Corinthians. He urged the duties of charity, and 
above all of submission to the clergy. He did not speak in vain ; 
peace and order were restored. St. Clement had done his work on 



472 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[November 24. 




earth, and shortly after sealed with his blood the faith which he 
had learned from Peter and taught to the nations. 



Reflection. — God rewards a simple spirit of submission to 
the clergy, for the honor done to them is done to Him. Your vir- 
tue is unreal, your faith in danger, if you fail in this. 

\j NOVEMBER 24. — ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS. 

tHE father of St. John was discarded by his kindred for mar- 
rying a poor orphan, and the Saint, thus born and nurtured 
in poverty, chose it also for his portion. Unable to learn a 
trade, he became the servant of the poor in the hospital of Medina, 
while still pursuing his sacred studies. In 1563, being then twenty- 
one, he humbly offered himself as a lay brother to the Carmelite 
friars, who, however, knowing his talents, had him ordained priest. 
He would now have exchanged to the severe Carthusian Order, had 
not St. Teresa, with the instinct of a Saint, persuaded him to remain 
and help her in the reform of his own Order. Thus he became the 
first prior of the Barefooted Carmelites. His reform, though 
approved by the general, was rejected by the elder friars, who 
condemned the Saint as a fugitive and apostate, and cast him into 
prison, whence he only escaped, after nine months' suffering, at 



November 25.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



473 




the risk of his life. Twice again, before his death, he was shame- 
fully persecuted by his brethren, and publicly disgraced. But his 
complete abandonment by creatures only deepened his interior 
peace and devout longing for heaven. 



Reflection. — "Live in the world," said St. John, " as if God 
and your soul only were in it; so shall your heart be never made 
captive by any earthly thing." 




NOVEMBER 25.— ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA. 

ATHERINE was a noble virgin of Alexandria. Before her 
baptism, it is said, she saw in vision the Blessed Virgin ask 
her Son to receive her among His servants, but the Divine 
Infant turned away. After baptism, Catherine saw the same 
vision, when Jesus Christ received her with great affection, and 
espoused her before the court of heaven. When the impious 
tyrant, Maximin II., came to Alexandria, fascinated by the 
wisdom, beauty, and wealth of the Saint, he in vain urged 
his suit. At last in his rage and disappointment he ordered her 
to be stripped and scourged. She fled to the Arabian mountains, 
where the soldiers overtook her, and after many torments put her 




474 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[November 26. 




to death. Her body was laid in Mount Sinai, and a beautiful 
legend relates that Catherine having prayed that no man might 
see or touch her body after death, angels bore it to the grave. 

Reflection. — The constancy displayed by the Saints in their 
glorious martyrdom cannot be isolated from their previous lives, 
but is their natural sequence. If we wish to emulate their perse- 
verance, let us first imitate their fidelity to grace. 



NOVEMBER 26.— ST. PETER OF ALEXANDRIA, BISHOP, 

MARTYR. 

T. PETER governed the Church of Alexandria during the 
persecution of Diocletian. The sentence of excommunica- 
tion that he was the first to pronounce against the schis- 
matics, Melitius and Arius, and which, despite the united efforts 
of powerful partisans, he strenuously upheld, proves that he 
possessed as much sagacity as zeal and firmness. But his most 
constant care was employed in guarding his flock from the dan- 
gers arising out of persecution. He never ceased repeating to 
them that, in order not to fear death, it was needful to begin by 
dying to self, renouncing our will, and detaching ourselves from 



November 27.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 




all things. St. Peter gave an example of such detachment by 
undergoing martyrdom in the year 311. 



Reflection. — " How hardly shall they that have riches enter 
into the kingdom of God!" says our Saviour ; because they are 
bound to earth by the strong ties of their riches. 

NOVEMBER 27.— ST. MAXIMUS, BISHOP. 




T. MAXIMUS, abbot of Lerins, in succession to St. Honora- 
tus, was remarkable not only for the spirit of recollection, 



fervor, and piety familiar to him from very childhood, but 
still more for the gentleness and kindliness with which he gov- 
erned the monastery which at that time contained many religious, 
and was famous for the learning and piety of its brethren. Ex- 
hibiting in his own person an example of the most sterling vir- 
tues, his exhortations could not fail to prove all-persuasive ; loving 
all his religious, whom it was his delight to consider as one family, 
he established amongst them that sweet concord, union, and holy 
emulation for well-doing which render the exercise of authority 
needless, and makes submission a pleasure. The clergy and 
people of Frejus, moved by such a shining example, elected Maxi- 
mus for their bishop, but he took to flight ; subsequently, he was 



476 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [NOVEMBER 28. 




compelled, however, to accept the see of Riez. where he practised 
virtue in all gentleness, and died in 460, regretted as the best of 
fathers. 



Reflection. — " Masters, do to your servants that which is just 
and equal, knowing that you also have a Master in Heaven." 



NOVEMBER 28.— ST. JAMES OF LA MARCA OF ANCONA. 

HE small town of Montbrandon, in the Marca of Ancona, gave 
birth to this Saint. When young he was sent to the Univer- 
sity of Perugia, where his progress in learning soon quali- 
fied him to be chosen preceptor to a young gentleman of Flor- 
ence. Fearing that he might be engulfed in the whirlpool of 
worldly excesses, St. James applied himself to prayer and recol- 
lection. When travelling near Assisium, he went into the great 
church of the Portiuncula to pray, and being animated by the fer- 
vor of the holy men who there served God, and by the example of 
their blessed founder St. Francis, he determined to petition in that 
very place for the habit of the Order. He began his spiritual war 
against the devil, the world, and the flesh, with assiduous prayer 
and extraordinary fasts and watchings. For forty years, he never 




November 29.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 477 




passed a day without taking the discipline. Being chosen arch- 
bishop of Milan, he fled, and could not be prevailed on to accept 
the office. He wrought several miracles at Venice and at other 
places, and raised from dangerous sicknesses the Duke of Calabria 
and the King of Naples. The Saint died in the convent of the 
Holy Trinity of his Order, near Naples, on the 28th of November, 
in the year 1476, being ninety years old. seventy of which he had 
spent in a religious state. 



NOVEMBER 29.— ST. SATURNINUS, MARTYR. 

ATURNINUS went from Rome, by direction of Pope Fabian, 
about the year 245, to preach the faith in Gaul. He fixed 
his episcopal see at Toulouse, and thus became the first 
Christian bishop of that city. There were but few Christians in 
the place. However, their number grew fast after the coming of 
the Saint ; and his power was felt by the spirits of evil, who re- 
ceived the worship of the heathen. His power was felt the more 
because he had to pass daily through the capitol, the high place 
of the heathen worship, on the way to his own church. One day a 
great multitude was gathered by an altar, where a bull stood 
ready for the sacrifice. A man in the crowd pointed out Saturn- 




478 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [November 30. 



inus, who was passing by, and the people would have forced him to 
idolatry; but the holy bishop answered: "I know but one God, 
and to Him I will offer the sacrifice of praise. How can I fear 
gods who, as you say, are afraid of me ? On this he was fastened 
to the bull, which was driven down the capitol. The brains of 
the Saint were scattered on the steps. His mangled body was 
taken up and buried by two devout women. 




Reflection. — When beset by the temptations of the devil, let 
us call upon the Saints, who reign with Christ. They were power- 
ful during their lives against the devil and his angels. They are 
more powerful now that they have passed from the Church on 
earth to the Church triumphant. 



NOVEMBER 30.— ST. ANDREW, APOSTLE. 

T. ANDREW was one of the fishermen of Bethsaida, and 
brother, perhaps elder brother, of St. Peter, and became a 
disciple of St. John Baptist. He seemed always eager to bring 
others into notice ; when called himself by Christ on the banks of 
the Jordan, his first thought was to go in search of his brother, and 
he said, " We have found the Messias," and he brought him to 
Jesus. It was he again who, when Christ wished to feed the five 




December I.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



479 



thousand in the desert, pointed out the little lad with the five 
loaves and fishes. St. Andrew went forth upon his mission to 
plant the faith in Scythia and Greece, and at the end of years 
of toil to win a martyr's crown. After suffering a cruel scours:- 
ing at Patras in Achaia, he was left, bound by cords, to die 
upon a cross. When St. Andrew first caught sight of the gibbet 
on which he was to die, he greeted the precious wood with joy. 




" O, good cross !" he cried, " made beautiful by the limbs of Christ, 
so long desired, now so happily found! Receive me into thy 
arms, and present me to my Master, that He who redeemed me 
through thee may now accept me from thee." Two whole days 
the martyr remained hanging on this cross alive, preaching, with 
outstretched arms from this chair of truth, to all who came near, 
and entreating them not to hinder his passion. 

Reflection. — If we would do good to others, we must, like 
St. Andrew, keep close to the Cross. 



DECEMBER i.— ST. ELIGIUS. 

LIGIUS, a goldsmith at Paris, was commissioned by King 
Clotaire to make a throne. With the gold and precious 
stones given him he made two. Struck by his rare honesty, 
the king gave him an appointment at court, and demanded an 



480 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [DECEMBER 2. 



oath of fidelity sworn upon holy relics ; but Eligius prayed with 
tears to be excused, for fear of failing in reverence to the relics of 
the Saints. On entering the court, he fortified himself against its 
seductions by many austerities and continual ejaculatory prayers. 
He had a marvellous zeal for the redemption of captives, and for 
their deliverance would sell his jewels, his food, his clothes, and 
his very shoes, once by his prayers breaking their chains and open- 
ing their prisons. His great delight was in making rich shrines 
for relics. His striking virtue caused him, a layman and a gold- 
smith, to be made Bishop of Noyon ; and his sanctity in this holy 




office was remarkable. He possessed the gifts of miracles and 
prophecy, and died. in 665. 

Reflection. — When God called His Saints to himself, He 
might, had He so pleased, have taken their bodies also ; but he 
willed to leave them in our charge, for our help and consolation. 
Be careful to imitate St. Eligius in making a good use of so great 
a treasure. 

DECEMBER 2.— ST. BIBIANA, VIRGIN, MARTYR. 

T. BIBIANA was a native of Rome. Flavian, her father, 
was apprehended, burned in the face with a hot iron, and 
banished to Acquapendente, where he died of his wounds a 
few days after ; and her mother, Dafrosa, was some time after 




December 3.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



481 



beheaded. Bibiana and her sister Demetria, after the death of 
their parents, were stripped of all they had in the world and suf- 
fered much from poverty. Apronianus, Governor of Rome, sum- 
moned them to appear before him. Demetria, having made confes- 
sion of her faith, fell down and expired at the foot of the tribunal, in 
the presence of the judge. Apronianus gave orders that Bibiana 
should be put into the hands of a wicked woman named Rufina, 
who was to bring her to another way of thinking; but Bibiana, 
making prayer her shield, remained invincible. Apronianus, en- 




raged at the courage and perseverance of a tender virgin, ordered 
her to be tied to a pillar and whipped with scourges loaded with 
leaden plummets till she expired. The Saint underwent this 
punishment cheerfully, and died in the hands of the executioners. 



Reflection. — Pray for a fidelity and patience like Bibiana's 
under all trials, that neither convenience nor any worldly advan- 
tage may ever prevail upon you to transgress your duty. 

DECEMBER 3.— ST. FRANCIS XAVIER. 

YOUNG Spanish gentleman, in the dangerous days of the 
Reformation, was making a name for himself as a Profes- 
sor of Philosophy in the University of Paris, and had 
seemingly no higher aim, when St. Ignatius, of Loyola, won him 




482 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[December 4. 



to heavenly thoughts. After a brief apostolate amongst his country- 
men in Rome, he was sent by St. Ignatius to the Indies, where for 
twelve years he was to wear himself out, bearing the Gospel to 
Hindostan, to Malacca, and to Japan. Thwarted by the jealousy, 
covetousness, and carelessness of those who should have helped 
and encouraged him, neither their opposition nor the difficulties 
of every sort which he encountered could make him slacken his 
labors for souls. The vast kingdom of China appealed to his 




charity, and he was resolved to risk his life to force an entry, when 
God took him to Himself, and on the 2d of December, 1552, he 
died, like Moses, in sight of the land of promise. 



Reflection. — Some are specially called to work for souls ; but 
there is no one who cannot help much in their salvation. Holy 
example, earnest intercession, the offerings of our actions in their 
behalf — all this needs only the spirit which animated St. Francis 
Xavier, the desire to make some return to God. 

DECEMBER 4. — ST. BARBARA, VIRGIN, MARTYR. 

\§£JT. BARBARA was brought up a heathen. A tyrannical 
Jk© father, Dioscorus, had kept her jealously secluded in a lonely 
tower which he had built for the purpose. Here, in her forced 
solitude, she gave herself to prayer and study, and contrived to 



December 5.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



483 



receive instruction and baptism by stealth from a Christian priest. 
Dioscorus, on discovering his daughter's conversion, was beside him- 
self with rage. He himself denounced her before the civil tribunal. 
Barbara was horribly tortured, and at last was beheaded, her own 
father, merciless to the last, acting as her executioner. God, 
however, speedily punished her persecutors. While her soul was 
being borne by angels to Paradise, a flash of lightning struck 
Dioscorus, and he was hurried before the judgment-seat of God. 




Reflection. — Pray often against a sudden and unprovided 
death ; and, above all, that you may be strengthened by the Holy 
Viaticum against the dangers of your last hour. 



DECEMBER 5.— ST. SABAS, ABBOT. 

\<5^T. SABAS, one of the most renowned patriarchs of the 
v2j) monks of Palestine, was born in the year 439, near Caesarea. 

In order to settle a dispute which had arisen between some 
of his relations, in regard to the administration of his estate, 
while still young, he forsook the world and entered a monas- 
tery, wherein he became a model of fervor. When Sabas had 
been ten years in this monastery, being eighteen years old, 
he went to Jerusalem to visit the holy places, and attached 



4 8 4 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[December 6. 



himself to a monastery then under control of St. Euthym- 
ius, but on the death of the holy abbot our Saint sought the 
wilderness, where he chose his dwelling in a cave on the top 
of a high mountain, at the bottom of which ran the brook 
Cedron. After he had lived here five years, several came to 
him, desiring to serve God under his direction. He was at first 
unwilling to consent, but finally founded a new monastery of 
persons all desirous to devote themselves to praise and serve 
God without interruption. His great sanctity becoming known, 
he w T as ordained priest, at the age of fifty-three, by the patriarch 




of Jerusalem and made Superior-General of all the anchorites of 
Palestine. He lived to be ninety-four, and died on the 5th of 
December, 532. 



DECEMBER 6.-ST. NICHOLAS OF BARI. 

T. NICHOLAS, the patron Saint of Russia, was born toward 
the end of the third century. His uncle, the Archbishop 
of Myra in Lycia, ordained him priest, and appointed him 
abbot of a monastery; and on the death of the archbishop he was 
elected to the vacant see. Throughout his life he retained the bright 
and guileless manners of his early years, and showed himself 
the special protector of the innocent and the wronged. Nich- 




December 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



485 



olas once heard that a person who had fallen into poverty in- 
tended to abandon his three daughters to a life of sin. Deter- 
mined, if possible, to save their innocence, the Saint went out by- 
night, and, taking with him a bag of gold, flung it into the win- 
dow of the sleeping father and hurried off. He, on awaking, 
deemed the gift a godsend, and with it dowered his eldest child. 
The Saint, overjoyed at his success, made like venture for the 
second daughter ; but the third time, as he stole away, the father, 
who was watching, overtook him and kissed his feet, saying: 
"Nicholas, why dost thou conceal thyself from me? Thou art 




my helper, and he who has delivered my soul and my daughters' 
from hell." St. Nicholas is usually represented by the side of a 
vessel, wherein a certain man had concealed the bodies of his 
three children whom he had killed, but who were restored to life 
by the Saint. He died a.d. 342. His relics were translated in 
1807, to Bari, Italy, and there, after fifteen centuries, "the manna 
of St. Nicholas" still flows from his bones and heals all kind of 
sick. 

Reflection. — Those who would enter heaven must be as little 
children, whose greatest glory is their innocence. Now, two 
things are ours to do : first, to preserve it in ourselves, or regain 
it by penance ; secondly, to love and shield it in others. 



486 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[December 7. 



DECEMBER 7.— ST. AMBROSE, BISHOP. 




MBROSE was of a noble family, and was governor of Milan 
_ a.d. 374, when a bishop was to be chosen for that great see. 
As the Arian heretics were many and fierce, he was present 
to preserve order during the election. Though only a catechu- 
men, it was the will of God that he should himself be chosen by 
acclamation ; and, in spite of his utmost resistance, he was bap- 
tised and consecrated. He was unwearied in every duty of a 
pastor, full of sympathy and charity, gentle and condescending in 




things indifferent, but inflexible in matters of principle. He 
showed his fearless zeal in braving the anger of the Empress Jus- 
tina, by resisting and foiling her impious attempt to give one of 
the churches of Milan to the Arians, and by rebuking and leading 
to penance the really great Emperor Theodosius, who in a moment 
of irritation had punished most cruelly a sedition of the inhab- 
itants of Thessalonica. He was the friend and consoler of St. 
Monica in all her sorrows, and in 387 he had the joy of admitting 
to the Church her son, St. Augustine. St. Ambrose died a.d. 397, 
full of years and of honors, and is revered by the Church of God 
as one of her greatest doctors. 

Reflection. — Whence came to St. Ambrose his grandeur of 



December 8.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



487 



mind, his clearness of insight, his intrepidity in maintaining the 
faith and discipline of the Church? Whence but from his con- 
tempt of the world, from his fearing God alone ? 



DECEMBER 8.— THE FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE 
CONCEPTION. 

#N this day, so dear to every Catholic heart, we celebrate, in 
the first place, the moment in which Almighty God showed 
Mary, through the distance of ages, to our first parents as the 
Virgin Mother of the Divine Redeemer, the woman destined to 
crush the head of the serpent. And as by eternal decree she was 




miraculously exempt from all stain of original sin, and endowed 
with the richest treasures of grace and sanctity, it is meet that we 
should honor her glorious prerogatives by this special feast of the 
Immaculate Conception. We should join in spirit with the blessed 
in heaven, and rejoice with our dear Mother, not only for her own 
sake, but for ours, her children, who are partakers of her glory 
and happiness. Secondly, we are called upon to celebrate that 
ever-memorable day, the 8th of December, 1854, which raised the 
Immaculate Conception of Our Blessed Lady from a pious belief 
to the dignity of a dogma of the Infallible Church, causing uni- 
versal joy amongst the faithful. 



488 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[December 9. 



Reflection. — Let us repeat frequently these words applied by 
the Church to the Blessed Virgin : " Thou art all fair, O, Mary !! 
and there is not a spot in thee." Cant. 4: 7. 



DECEMBER 9.— ST. LEOCADIA, VIRGIN, MARTYR. 



^<S^ T. LEOCADIA was a native of Toledo, and was apprehended 
by an order of Dacian, the cruel governor under Diocletian 
in 304. Hearing of the martyrdom of St. Eulalia, she prayed 
that God would not prolong her exile, but unite her speedily with, 
her holy friend in his glory. Her prayer was heard, and she 




happily expired in prison. Three famous churches in Toledo 
bear her name, and she is honored as principal patroness of that 
city. In one of those churches most of the councils of Toledo 
were held. Her relics were kept in that church with great 
respect, till, in the incursions of the Moors, they were conveyed to 
Oviedo, and some years afterward to the abbey of St. Guislain near 
Mons in Haynault. They were finally carried back to Toledo 
with great pomp, and placed in the great church there on the 26th 
of April, 1589. 



Reflection. — Were we not blinded by the world, and the 
enchantment of its follies, the near prospect of eternity, the 



December io.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



489 



uncertainty of the hour of our death, and the repeated precepts of 
Christ, would produce in us the same fervent dispositions which 
they did in the primitive Christians. 

DECEMBER 10.-ST. EULALIA, VIRGIN, MARTYR. 

y^T. EULALIA was a native of Merida, in Spain. She was but 
j§f twelve years old when the bloody edicts of Diocletian were 
issued. Eulalia presented herself before the cruel judge 
Dacianus, and reproached him for attempting to destroy souls 
by compelling them to renounce the only true God. The gov- 




ernor commanded her to be seized, and at first tried to win her 
over by flattery, but failing in this, he had recourse to threats, 
and caused the most dreadful instruments of torture to be placed 
before her eyes, saying to her: "All this you shall escape if you 
will but touch a little salt and frankincense with the tip of your 
finger." Provoked at these seducing flatteries, our Saint threw 
down the idol, and trampled upon the cake which was laid for 
the sacrifice. At the judge's order, two executioners tore her 
tender sides with iron hooks, so as to leave the very bones bare. 
Next lighted torches were applied to her breasts and sides; under 
which torment, instead of groans, nothing was heard from her 
mouth but thanksgivings. The fire at length catching her hair, 



49° 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [December 1 1. 



surrounded her head and face, and the Saint' was stifled by the 
smoke and flame. 

Reflection. — The Apostles rejoiced " that they were accounted 
worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." Do we bear 
our crosses with the same spirit ? 

DECEMBER n.— ST. DAMASUS, POPE. 

T. DAMASUS was born at Rome at the beginning of the 
fourth century. He was archdeacon of the Roman Church 
i n 355> when Pope Liberius was banished to Berda, and 
followed him into exile, but afterward returned to Rome. On the 
death of Liberius, our Saint was chosen to succeed him. Ursinus? 




a competitor for the high office, incited a revolt, but the holy Pope 
took only such action as was becoming to the common father of 
the faithful. Having freed the Church of this new schism, he 
turned his attention to the extirpation of Arianism in the West, 
and of Apollinarianism in the East, and for this purpose he con- 
vened several councils. He rebuilt the Church of St. Laurence, 
which to this day is known as St. Laurence in Damaso; he made 
many valuable presents to this church, and settled upon it houses 




December 12.] LIVES OF the SAINTS. 



49 1 



and lands in its vicinity. He likewise drained all the springs of 
the Vatican, which ran over the bodies that were buried there, and 
decorated the sepulchres of a great number of martyrs in the 
cemeteries, and adorned them with epitaphs in verse. Having sat 
eighteen years and two months, he died on the 10th of December, 
in 384, being near fourscore years of age. 



DECEMBER 12.-ST. VALERY, ABBOT. — ST. FINIAN, BISHOP. 

HIS Saint was born at Auvergne, in the sixth century, and in 
his childhood kept his father's sheep. He was yet young 
when he took the monastic habit in the neighboring monas- 
tery of St. Antony. Seeking the most perfect means of advanc- 
ing in the paths of all virtues, he passed from this house to the 




more austere monastery of St. Germanus of Auxerre, and finally 
to that of Luxeu, where he spent many years. He travelled into 
Neustria, where he converted many infidels, and assembled certain 
fervent disciples, and laid the foundation of a monastery. Saint 
Valery went to receive the recompense of his happy perseverance 
on the 12th of December in 622. 

St. Finian was a native of Leinster, was instructed in the 
elements of Christian virtue by the disciples of St. Patrick, 




492 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [DECEMBER 1 3. 

and passed over into Wales; but about the year 520 he returned 
into Ireland. To propagate the work of God, our Saint estab- 
lished several monasteries and schools. St. Finian was chosen and 
consecrated bishop of Clonard. In the love of his flock and his 
zeal for their salvation, he was infirm with the infirm, and wept 
with those that wept. He healed the souls, and often also the 
bodies, of those that applied to him. He departed to our Lord on 
the 1 2th of December in 552. 



DECEMBER 13.— ST. LUCY, VIRGIN, MARTYR. 

HE mother of St. Lucy suffered four years from an issue of 
blood, and the help of man failed. St. Lucy reminded her 
mother that a woman in the Gospel had been healed of the 
same disorder. " St. Agatha," she said, " stands ever in the sight 
of Him for whom she died. Only touch her sepulchre with faith, 
and you will be healed." They spent the night praying by the 
tomb, till, overcome by weariness, both fell asleep. St. Agatha 
appeared in vision to St. Lucy, and calling her sister, foretold 
her mother's recovery and her own martyrdom. That instant 




the cure was effected ; and in her gratitude the mother allowed 
her daughter to distribute her wealth among the poor, and con- 




December 14.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



493 



secrate her virginity to Christ. A young man to whom she 
had been promised in marriage, accused her as a Christian to 
the heathen ; but our Lord, by a special miracle, saved from 
outrage this virgin whom He had chosen for His own. The fire 
kindled around her did her no hurt. Then the sword was plunged 
into her heart, and the promise made at the tomb of St. Agatha 
was fulfilled. 

Reflection. — The Saints had to bear sufferings and tempta- 
tions greater far than yours. How did they overcome them ? 
By the love of Christ. Nourish this pure love by meditating on 
the mysteries of Christ's life ; and, above all, by devotion to the 
Holy Eucharist, which is the antidote against sin and the pledge 
of eternal life. 

DECEMBER 14.— ST. NICASIUS, ARCHBISHOP, AND HIS COM- 
PANIONS, MARTYRS. 

fN the fifth century an army of barbarians from Germany 
ravaging part of Gaul, plundered the city of Rheims. 
Nicasius, the holy bishop, had foretold this calamity to his 




flock. When he saw the enemy at the gates and in the streets, 
forgetting himslf, and solicitous only for his spiritual children, he 



494 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[December 15. 



went from door to door encouraging all to patience and con- 
stancy, and awaking in every breast the most heroic sentiments of 
piety and religion. In endeavoring to save the lives of his flock, 
he exposed himself to the swords of the infidels, who, after a 
thousand insults and indignities, cut off his head. Florens, his 
deacon, and Jocond, his lector, were massacred by his side. His 
sister Eutropia, a virtuous virgin, fearing she might be reserved 
for a fate worse than death, boldly cried out to the infidels, that it 
was her unalterable resolution rather to sacrifice her life than her 
faith or her integrity and virtue. Upon which they despatched 
her with their cutlasses. 

Reflection. — Bear patiently and sweetly bodily sufferings, 
and prepare for the day of trial by the courageous endurance of 
the daily crosses incident to your state. 



DECEMBER 15.— ST. MESMIN. 



0 T. MESMIN was a native of Verdun 



The inhabitants of 
that place having proved disloyal to King Clovis, an uncle 
of our Saint's, a priest named Euspice, brought about a recon- 













km 


vV J 






ciliation between the monarch and his subjects. Clovis, appre- 
ciating the virtues of Euspice, persuaded him to take up his resi- 



DecEx\iber i 6.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



495 



dence at court, and the servant of God took St. Mesmin along 
with him. While journeying to Orleans with Clovis, he noticed 
at about two leagues from the city, beyond the Loire, a solitary 
spot called Micy, which he thought well suited for a retreat. 
Having asked for and obtained the place, he with Mesmin and 
several disciples built there a monastery, of which he took charge. 
At his death, which happened about two years after, our Saint was 
appointed abbot by Eusebius, bishop of Orleans. During a terrible 
famine, he fed nearly the whole city of Orleans with wheat from 
his monastery, without perceptibly reducing it ; he also drove an 
enormous serpent out of the place in which he was afterward 
buried. Having governed his monastery ten years, he died as he 
had lived, in the odor of sanctity, on the 15th of December, 520. 

Reflection. — Few are called to serve God by great actions, 
but all are bound to strive after perfection in the ordinary actions 
of their daily life. 



DECEMBER 16.— ST. EUSEBIUS, BISHOP. 

T. EUSEBIUS was born of a noble family, in the island of 
Sardinia, where his father is said to have died in prison for 
the faith. The Saint's mother carried him and his sister, 
both infants, to Rome. Eusebius having been ordained, served 
the Church of Vercelli with such zeal that on the Episcopal chair 
becoming vacant, he was unanimously chosen, by both clergy 
and people, to fill it. The holy bishop saw that the best and first 
means to labor effectually for the edification and sanctification 
of his people, was to have a zealous clergy. He was at the 
same time very careful to instruct his flock, and inspire them with 
the maxims of the Gospel. The force of the truth which he 
preached, together with his example, brought many sinners to a 
change of life. He courageously fought against the heretics who 
had him banished to Scythopolis, and thence to Upper Thebais in 
Egypt, where he suffered so grievously as to win, in some of the 
panegyrics in his praise, the title of martyr. He died in the latter 
part of the year 371. 

Reflection. — The routine of every-day, commonplace duties is 
no hindrance to a free intimacy with God. He will disclose His 




496 LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [ December l 7- 




hidden ways to you in proportion as you follow your vocation 
faithfully, whether in the world or the cloister. 



DECEMBER 17.— ST. OLYMPIAS, WIDOW. 

fT. OLYMPIAS, the glory of the widows in the Eastern 
Church, was of a noble and wealthy family. Left an 
orphan at a tender age, she was brought up by Theodosia, 
sister of St. Amphilochius, a virtuous and prudent woman. Olym- 
pias insensibly reflected the virtues of this estimable woman. She 
married quite young, but her husband dying within twenty days 
of their wedding, she modestly declined any further offer for her 
hand, and resolved to consecrate her life to prayer and other good 
works, and to devote her fortune to the poor. Nectarius, Arch- 
bishop of Constantinople, had a high esteem for the saintly 
widow, and made her a deaconess of his church, the duties of 
which were to prepare the altar linen and to attend to other mat- 
ters of that sort. St. Chrysostom, who succeeded Nectarius, had 
no less respect than his predecessor for Olympias, but refused to 
attend to the distribution of her alms. Our Saint was one of the 
last to leave St. Chrysostom when he went into banishment on 
the 20th of June, 404. After his departure, she suffered great perse- 



December 18.] lives of the SAINTS. 



49/ 




cution, and crowned a virtuous life by a saintly death, about the 
year 410. 



Reflection. — " Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth, 
but in heaven, where neither rust nor moth doth consume." 



DECEMBER 18.— ST. GATIAN, BISHOP. 

T. GATIAN came from Rome with St. Dionysius of Paris, 
about the middle of the third century, and preached the faith 
principally at Tours in Gaul, where he fixed his episcopal 
see. The Gauls in that part were extremely addicted to the wor- 
ship of their idols. But no contradictions or sufferings were able 
to discourage or daunt this true apostle ; and by perseverance he 
gained several to Christ. He assembled his little flock in grots 
and caves, and there celebrated the divine mysteries. He was 
obliged often to lie hid in lurking holes a long time together in 
order to escape a cruel death, with which the heathens frequently 
threatened him, and which he was always ready to receive with 
joy if he had fallen into their hands. Having continued his 
labors with unwearied zeal amidst frequent sufferings and dan- 
gers for near the space of fifty years, he died in peace, and was 
honored with miracles. 



498 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [December 19. 




Reflection. — God does not ask great sacrifices from all ; but, 
in His goodness, He gives us all some things to renounce or to 
suffer for Him, and it is by our loving submission to His will that 
we show ourselves to be Christians. 



DECEMBER 19.— ST. NEMESION, MARTYR. 

fN the persecution of Decius, Nemesion, an Egyptian, was 
apprehended at Alexandria upon an indictment for theft. 
The servant of Christ easily cleared himself of that charge, 
but was immediately accused of being a Christian, and, after being 
scourged and tormented more than the thieves, was condemned 
to be burnt with the robbers and other malefactors. There stood 
at the same time near the prefect's tribunal four soldiers and 
another person, who, being Christians, boldly encouraged a con- 
fessor who was hanging 011 the rack. They were taken before the 
judge, who condemned them to be beheaded; but was astonished 
rto see the joy with which they walked to the place of execution. 
Heron, Ater, and Isidore, all Egyptians, with Dioscorus, a youth 
only fifteen years old, were committed at Alexandria in the same 
persecution. After enduring the most cruel rending and disjoint- 



December 20.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



499 




ing of their limbs, they were burnt alive, with the exception of 
Dioscorus, whom the judge discharged on account of the tender- 
ness of his years. 

Reflection. — Can we call to mind the fervor of the Saints in 
laboring and suffering cheerfully for God, and not feel a holy 
ardor glow in our own breasts, and our souls strongly affected with 
their heroic sentiments of virtue ? 



DECEMBER 20.— ST. PHILOGONIUS, BISHOP. 

T. PHILOGONIUS was educated for the law, and appeared 
at the bar with great success. He was admired for his elo- 
quence, but still more for his integrity and the sanctity of his 
life. This was considered a sufficient motive for dispensing with 
the canons, which require some time spent among the clergy 
before a person be advanced to the highest station in the Church. 
Philogonius was placed in the see of Antioch, upon the death of 
Vitalis in 318. When Arius broached his blasphemies at Alex- 
andria in 318, St. Alexander condemned him, and sent the sen- 
tence in a synodal letter to St. Philogonius, who strenuously 
defended the Catholic faith before the assembly of the Council of 




5oo 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[December 21, 




Nice. In the storms which were raised against the Church, first 
by Maximin II. and afterward by Licinius, St. Philogonius de- 
served the title of Confessor; he died in the year 322, the fifth of 
his episcopal dignity. 



Reflection. — St. Philogonius had so perfectly renounced the 
world, and crucified its inordinate desires in his heart, that he re- 
ceived in this life the earnest of Christ's Spirit, was admitted to 
the sacred council of the heavenly King, and had free access to the 
Almighty. A soul must here learn the heavenly spirit, and be 
well versed in the occupations of the blessed, that hopes to reign 
with them hereafter. 



DECEMBER 21. — ST. THOMAS, APOSTLE. 

T. THOMAS was one of the fishermen on the Lake of Galilee 
whom our Lord called to be His Apostles. By nature slow 
to believe, too apt to see difficulties, and to look at the dark 
side of things, he had withal a most sympathetic, loving, and 
•courageous heart. Once when Jesus spoke of the mansions in 
His Father's house, St. Thomas, in his simplicity, asked : " Lord, 
we know not whither Thou goest, and how can we know the 



December 22.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 




way ?" When Jesus turned to go toward Bethany to the grave 
of Lazarus, the desponding Apostle at once feared the worst for 
his beloved Lord, yet cried out bravely to the rest : " Let us also 
go and die with Him." After the Resurrection, incredulity again 
prevailed, and whilst the wounds of the crucifixion were imprinted 
vividly on his affectionate mind, he would not credit the report 
that Christ had indeed risen. But at the actual sight of the 
pierced hands and side, and the gentle rebuke of his Saviour, 
unbelief was gone forever; and his faith and ours has ever 
triumphed in the joyous utterance into which he broke: "My 
Lord and my God!" 

Reflection. — Cast away all disquieting doubts, and learn to 
triumph over old weaknesses as St. Thomas did, who "by his 
ignorance hath instructed the ignorant, and by his incredulity hath 
served for the faith of all ages." 

/ 

/ DECEMBER 22.-ST. ISCHYRION, MARTYR. 

~SCHYRION was an inferior officer who attended on a magis- 
trate of a certain city in Egypt. His master commanded him 
to offer sacrifice to the idols ; and because he refused to com- 
mit that sacrilege, reproached him with the most abusive and 



502 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [DECEMBER 23. 



threatening Speeches. By giving way to passion and superstition, 
the officer at length worked himself up to such a degree of frenzy 
as to run a stake into the bowels of the meek servant of Christ, who, 
by his patient constancy, attained to the glory of martyrdom. 

Reflection. — It is not a man's condition, but virtue, that can 
make him truly great or truly happy. How mean soever a 
person's station or circumstances may be, the road to both is open 
to him*, and there is not a servant or slave who ought not to be 




enkindled with a laudable ambition of arriving at this greatness, 
which will set him on the same level with the rich and the most 
powerful. 



DECEMBER 23.— ST. SERVULUS. 

ERVULUS was a beggar, and had been so afflicted with 
palsy from his infancy that he was never able to stand, sit 
upright, lift his hand to his mouth, or turn himself from one 
side to another. His mother and brother carried him into the 
porch of St. Clement's church at Rome, where he lived on the 
alms of those that passed by. He used to entreat devout persons 
to read the Holy Scriptures to him, which he heard with such 



December 24.] 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



503 



attention as to learn them by heart. His time he consecrated by 
assiduously singing hymns of praise and thanksgiving to God. 
After several years thus spent, his distemper having seized his 
vitals, he felt his end was drawing nigh. In his last moments he 
desired the poor and pilgrims, who had often shared in his charity 
to sing sacred hymns and psalms for him. Whilst he joined his 
voice with theirs, he on a sudden cried out : " Silence : do you not 




hear the sweet melody and praise which resound in the heavens ?" 
Soon after he spoke these words he expired, and his soul was 
carried by angels into everlasting bliss, about the year 590. 

Reflection. — The whole behavior of this poor sick beggar 
loudly condemns those who, when blessed with good health and 
a plentiful fortune, neither do good works nor suffer the least 
cross with tolerable patience. . 



DECEMBER 24.— ST. DELPHINUS, BISHOP— SS. THRASILLA 
AND EMILIANA, VIRGINS. 

ITTLE is known of St. Delphinus before his elevation to 
the Episcopate. He assisted at the Council of Saragossa, 
in 330, in which the Priscillianists were condemned, and 
also at the Council of Bordeaux, which condemned the same schis- 




504 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[December 24. 



matics. He baptized St. Paulerius in 388, and the latter, in several 
letters, speaks of him as his father and his master. St. Delphinus 
died on the 24th of December, 403. 

SS. Thrasilla and Emiliana were aunts of St. Gregory the 
Great. They lived in their father's house as retired as in a monas- 
tery, far removed from the conversation of men ; and, exciting 
one another to virtue by discourse and example, soon made con- 
siderable progress in spiritual life. Thrasilla was favored one 
night with a vision of her uncle, St. Felix, Pope, who showed 
her a seat prepared for her in heaven, saying: "Come; I will re- 




ceive you into this habitation of light." She fell sick of a feve-r 
the next day. When in her agony, with her eyes fixed on heaven, 
she cried out to those that were present : " Depart ! make room ! 
Jesus is coming !" Soon after these words she breathed out her 
pious soul into the hands of God on the 24th of December. A 
few days after she appeared to her sister, Emiliana, and invited 
her to celebrate with her the Epiphany in eternal bliss. Emiliana 
fell sick, and died on the 8th of January. 



Reflection. — We may often think the austerities of the Saints 
are beyond our strength; let us, then, imitate the guard they kept 
over their tongue. This is within the reach of all. 



December 25.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



505 



DECEMBER 25.— THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST, OR CHRIST. 

MAS-DAY. 

tHE world had subsisted about four thousand years when 
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, having taken human 
flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and being made man, 
was born of her for the redemption of mankind, at Bethlehem of 
Judea. Joseph and Mary had come up to Bethlehem to be 
enrolled, and, unable to find shelter elsewhere, they took refuge 
in a stable, and in this lowly place Jesus Christ was born. The 




Blessed Virgin wrapped the divine Infant in swaddling-clothes, 
and laid Him in the manger. Whilst the sensual and the proud 
were asleep, an angel appeared to some poor shepherds. They 
were seized with great fear, but the heavenly messenger said to 
them : " Fear not : for behold I bring you good tidings of exceed- 
ing great joy, that shall be to all the people. For this day is born 
to you a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. 
And this shall be a sign to you : you shall find the child wrapped in 
swaddling-clothes, and laid in a manger." After the departure of 
the angel, the wondering shepherds said to one another : " Let us 
go over to Bethlehem, and let us see the word that is come to pass, 
which the Lord hath showed to us." They immediately hastened 
thither, and found Mary and Joseph, and the Infant lying in the 



506 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[December 26. 



manger. Bowing down they adored Him, and then returned 
to their flocks, glorifying and praising God. 

Reflection. — Our Saviour sanctified our flesh by taking it on 
Himself, and with His last breath He commended us to the care 
of His Virgin Mother. Day by day He still feeds us at the altar 
with the food of incorruption — His Body and His Blood. 



DECEMBER 26.— ST. STEPHEN, FIRST MARTYR. 

HERE is good reason to believe that St. Stephen was one of 
the seventy-two disciples of our Blessed Lord. After the 
Ascension he was chosen one of the seven deacons. The 
ministry of the seven was very fruitful ; but Stephen especially, 
" full of grace and fortitude, did great wonders and signs among 




the people." Many adversaries rose up to dispute with him, but 
" they were not able to withstand the wisdom and the spirit that 
spoke." At length he was brought before the Sanhedrim, charged, 
like his Divine Master, with blasphemy against Moses and 
against God." He boldly upbraided the chief priests with their 
hard-hearted resistance to the Holy Ghost and with the murder of 
the " Just One." They were stung with anger, and gnashed their 




December 27.] LIVES OF the saints. 



507 



teeth against him. But when " filled with the Holy Ghost and 
looking up to heaven, he cried out, ' Behold, I see the heavens 
opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God,' 
they rushed upon him, and dragging him forth without the city, 
they stoned him to death." 

Reflection. — If ever you are tempted to resentment, pray 
from your heart for him who has offended you. 



DECEMBER 27.— ST. JOHN, EVANGELIST. 

T. JOHN, the youngest of the Apostles in age, was called to 
follow Christ on the banks of the Jordan during the first days 
of our Lord's ministry. He was one of the privileged few 
present at the Transfiguration and the Agony in the garden. At 




the Last Supper, his head rested on the bosom of Jesus, and in 
the hours of the Passion, when others fled or denied their Master, 
St. John kept his place by the side of Jesus, and at the last stood 
by the Cross with Mary. From the Cross the dying Saviour be- 
queathed His Mother to the care of the faithful Apostle, who 
" from that hour took her to his own;" thus fitly, as St. Austin 
says, " to a virgin was the Virgin intrusted." After the Ascension, 




508 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [DECEMBER 28. 



St. John lived first at Jerusalem, and then at Ephesus. He was 
thrown by Domitian into a cauldron of boiling oil, and is thus 
reckoned a martyr, though miraculously preserved from hurt. 
Afterwards he was banished to the isle of Patmos, where he received 
.the heavenly visions described in the Apocalypse. He died at a 
great age in peace, at Ephesus, in the year 100. 

Reflection. — St. John is a living example of our Lord's 
saying, "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God." 



DECEMBER 28.— THE HOLY INNOCENTS. 

rj fft T EROD, who was reigning in Judea at the time of the birth 
31! . JL of Our Saviour, having heard that the Wisemen had 
come from the East to Jerusalem in search of the king of 
the Jews, was troubled. He called together the chief priests, and 
learning that Christ was to be born in Bethlehem, he told the 




Wisemen : " When you have found him, bring me word again, 
that I also may come and adore him." But God having warned 
them in a dream not to return, they went back to their homes 
another way. St. Joseph, too, was ordered in his sleep to " take 



December 29.] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



509 



the Child and His mother and fly into Egypt." When Herod found 
that the Wisemen did not return, he was furious, and ordered that 
every male child in Bethlehem and its vicinity of the age of two 
and under should be slain. These innocent victims were the 
flowers and the first-fruits of His martyrs, and triumphed over the 
world, without having ever known it or experienced its dangers. 

Reflection. — How few perhaps of these children, if they had 
lived, would have escaped the dangers of the world! What 
snares, what sins, what miseries were they preserved from! So 
we often lament as misfortunes many accidents which in the 
designs of heaven are the greatest mercies. 



DECEMBER 29.— ST. THOMAS OF CANTERBURY. 




him to Paris and Bologna to study law. He became Archdeacon 
of Canterbury, then Lord High Chancellor of England ; and in 
1 160, when Archbishop Theobald died, the king insisted on the 
consecration of St. Thomas in his stead. St. Thomas refused, 



5io 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 



[December 30. 



warning the king that from that hour their friendship would be 
broken. In the end he yielded, and was consecrated. The conflict 
at once broke out ; St. Thomas resisted the royal customs, which 
violated the liberties of the Church and the laws of the realm. 
After six years of contention, partly spent in exile, St. Thomas, 
with full foresight of martydom before him, returned as a 
good shepherd to his Church. On the 29th of December, 11 70, 
just as vespers were beginning, four knights broke into the cathe- 
dral, crying : "Where is the archbishop? where is the traitor?" 
The monks fled, and St. Thomas might easily have escaped. But 
he advanced, saying: "Here I am — no traitor, but archbishop. 
What seek you ?" " Your life," they cried. " Gladly do I give it," 
was the reply ; and bowing his head, the invincible martyr was 
hacked and hewn till his soul went to God. Six months later 
Henry II. submitted to be publicly scourged at the Saint's shrine, 
and restored to the Church her full rights. 

Reflection. — " Learn from St. Thomas," says Father Faber, 
" to fight the good fight even to the shedding of blood, or, to what 
men find harder, the shedding of their good name by pouring it 
out to waste on the earth." 



DECEMBER 30.— ST. SABINUS, BISHOP, AND HIS COMPAN- 
IONS, MARTYRS. 



HE cruel edicts of Diocletian and Maximin against the 



Christians, being published in the year 303, Sabinus, bishop 



of Assisium, and several of his clergy, were apprehended 
and kept in custody till Venustianus, the Governor of Etruria 
and Umbria, came thither. Upon his arrival in that city he caused 
the hands of Sabinus, who had made a glorious confession of his 
faith before him, to be cut off ; and his two deacons, Marcellus 
and Exuperantius, to be scourged, beaten with clubs, and torn 
with iron nails, under which torments they both expired. Sabinus 
is said to have cured a blind boy, and a weakness in the eyes of 
Venustianus himself, who was thereupon converted, and after- 
ward beheaded for the faith. Lucius, his successor, commanded 
Sabinus to be beaten to death with clubs at Spoleto. The martyr 
was buried a mile from that city ; but his relics have been since 
translated to Faenza. 




December 3 1 .] LIVES OF THE SAINTS. 511 # 




Reflection.— How powerfully do the martyrs cry out to us by 
their example, exhorting us to despise a false and wicked world ! 



DECEMBER 31.— ST. SYLVESTER, POPE. 

YLVESTER was born in Rome toward the close of the 
third century. He was a young priest when the per- 
secution of the Christians broke out under the tyrant 
Diocletian. Idols were erected at the corners of the streets, in 
the market-places, and over the public fountains, so that it was 
scarcely possible for a Christian to go abroad without being put 
to the test of offering sacrifice, with the alternative of apostasy 
or death. During this fiery trial, Sylvester strengthened the con- 
fessors and martyrs, God preserving his life from many dangers. 
In 312 a new era set in. Constantine, having triumphed under 
the "standard of the Cross," declared himself the protector of 
the Christians, and built them splendid churches. At this 
juncture, Sylvester was elected to the chair of Peter, and 
was thus the first of the Roman Pontiffs to rule the JJock of 
Christ in security and peace. He profited by these blessings to 
renew the discipline of the Church, and in two great Councils con- 
firmed her sacred truths. In the Council of Aries he condemned 



5 I2 



LIVES OF THE SAINTS. [DECEMBER 31. 




the schism of the Donatists ; and in that of Nicaea, the first General 
Council of the Church, he dealt Arianism its death-blow by de- 
claring that Jesus Christ is the true and very God. Sylvester 
died a.d. 335. 

Reflection. — Never forget to thank God daily for having 
made you a member of His undying Church, and grow daily in 
your attachment, devotion, and loyalty to the Vicar of Christ. 



A. 

Advent 7 

All Saints 447 

All Souls 448 

The Annunciation 154 

The Ascension 23 

The Assumption 355 

Ash Wednesday 9 

SS. Abraham and Mary 137 

SS. Adrian and Eubulus 122 

St. Aelred 4_l 

St. Agapetus 360 

St. Agatha 80 

St. Agnes 56 

St, Albinus 116 

St. Alexius 317 

St. Aloysius Gonzaga 281 

St. Alphonsus Ligouri 338 

St. Ambrose 486 

St. Andrew, Apostle 478 

St. Andrew Avellino 456 

St. Anicetus 186 

St. Anne 329 

St. Anselm 191 

St. Antoninus 219 

St. Antony 51 

St. Antony of Padua 270 

St. Apollinaris, Apologist 39 

St. Apollinaris, Martyr 325 

St. Appolonia and the Martyrs of 

Alexandria 87 

St. Apollonius 187 

St. Athanasius 207 

St. Augustine 242 

St. Augustine of Hippo 373 

St. Avitus 275 

B. 

Blood, The Most Precious 11 

St. Bademus 177 

St. Barachisius 160 

St. Barbara 482 



St. Barbatus 100 

St. Barnabas 267 

St. Bartholomew 368 

St. Basil the Great 271 

St. Basilissa 40 

St. Bathildes 68 

Ven Bede 244 

St. Benedict 148 

St. Benedict of Anian 91 

St. Benezet 1S2 

St. Benjamin 162 

St. Bernard 362 

St. Bernardine of Siena 232 

St. Bertha , . .298 

St. Bertille 452 

St. Bibiana 480 

St. Blase 78 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The Annunci- 
ation of 154 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The Assump- 
tion of 355 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The Immacu- 
late Conception of 487 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The Nativity 

of 389 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The Presenta- 
tion of 469 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The Purifica- 
tion of 75 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The Seven 

Dolors of 13 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The Sunday 
in the Octave of the Nativity 

of 390 

Blessed Virgin Mary, The Visitation 

of 295 

Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy 408 

St. Bonaventure . .312 

St. Boniface 257 

St. Bridgid 71 

St. Bridget of Sweden 423 

St. Bruno 421 



5H 



INDEX. 



C. 

Candlemas-day 75 

Christmas 505 

The Circumcision of Our Lord. ... 29 

Corpus Christi 27 

Cross, The Holy, Discovery of 208 

Cross, The Holy, Exaltation of. . . .397 

Crown of Thorns, The Holy 14 

St. Cajetan 344 

St. Callistus 430 

St. Camillus of Lellis 318 

St. Canutus ; 53 

St. Casimir 120 

St. Catherine of Alexandria 473 

St. Catherine of Genoa . . .39S 

St. Catherine of Ricci 92 

St. Catherine of Siena 204 

St. Catherine of Sweden 149 

St. Cecilia 470 

St. Celestine 171 

St. Celsus 331 

St. Charles Borromeo 451 

St. Christina .' 327 

St. Clare 351 

St. Claude 261 

St. Clement of Rome 471 

SS. Cletus and Marcellinus 198 

St. Clotilda 254 

St. Cloud 387 

St. Colette . . 123 

St. Columba or Columkille 264 

SS. Cosmas and Damian 412 

St. Crescentia 273 

SS. Crispin and Crispinian 440 

St. Cunegundes 119 

. St. Cyprian 399 

SS. Cyprian and Justina, Martyrs.. 410 
St. Cyriacus and his Companions. .346 

St. Cyril 247 

St. Cyril of Alexandria. 66 

St. Cyril of Jerusalem 142 

D. 

St. Damasus 490 

St. Damian . . .412 

St. David 115 

St. Delphinus 503 

St. Didacus 460 

St. Dionysia 226 



St. Dionysius and his Companions. 424 



St. Dominic 341 

SS. Donatian and Rogatian 238 

St. Dorothy 82 

E. 

Easter Sunday 21 

Epiphany of Our Lord 37 

St. Edmund of Canterbury 464 

St. Edward the Confessor 428 

Eighteen Martyrs of Saragossa 185 

St. Eleutherius 386 

St. Eligius 479 

St. Elizabeth of Hungary -*467 

St. Elizabeth of Portugal. 303 

St. Elphege 189 

St. Emiliana 504 

St. Encratis 185 

St. Ephrem 305 

St. Epiphanius 221 

St. Etheldreda 283 

St. Eubulus 122 

St. Eucherius 102 

St. Eugenius 311 

St. Eulalia 489 

St. Eulogius 130 

St. Eulogius, Patriarch 396 

St. Euphrasia 133 

St. Eusebius 353 

St. Eusebius, Bishop 495 

St. Eustachius and his Companions. 404 
St. Evaristus 441 

F. 

The Five Wounds of Our Lord. ... 10 

The Forty Hours Devotion 8 

SS. Faustinus and Jovita 94 

St. Felicianus 263 

St. Felicitas and her Seven Sons. . .306 

St. Felix 1 248 

St. Felix of Valois 468 

St. Fiaker 377 

St. Fidelis 195 

St. Finbarr 4°9 

St. Finian 491 

St. Firmin 409 

St. Flavian 97 

Forty Martyrs of Sebaste 128 

St. Frances of Rome 127 



INDEX. 



St. Francis of Assisi 419 

St. Francis Borgia 425 

St. Francis Caracciolo 255 

St. Francis of Paula 165 

St. Francis of Sales 67 

St. Francis Xavier 481 

St. Frumentius 442 

St. Fulgentius 30 

G. 

Guardian Angels 417 

Good Friday 18 

St. Gal, Bishop t 294 

St. Gall, Abbot 432 

St. Gatian 497 

St. Genevieve 32 

St. George 194 

St. Gerard 418 

St. Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre. .333 

St. Germanus, Bishop of Paris 245 

St. Gertrude 463 

St. Giles 380 

St. Goar 300 

St. Gontran 159 

St. Gregory the Great 132 

St. Gregory, Bishop of Langres. ... 35 

St. Gregory Nazianzen 217 

St. Gregory VII 239 

St. Gregory Thaumaturgus 465 

St. Guy of Anderlacht 395 

H. 

Holy Cross, The discovery of the. .208 
Holy Cross, The Exaltation of the. 397 

Holy Innocents 508 

Holy Relics, Feast of the 455 

Holy Saturday 19 

St. Hedwige 433 

St. Hegesippus 172 

St. Helena 359 

St. Heliodorus 297 

St. Henry 314 

B. Herman Joseph of Steinfeld 173 

St. Hermenegild 181 

St. Hilarion 438 

St. Hilary of Poitiers 47 

St. Honoratus 50 

St. Hospitius 234 

St. Hubert 450 



515 

St. Hugh ^4 

St. Hugh of Cluny 203 

St. Hyacinth 355 

I. 

The Immaculate Conception 487 

St. Ignatius, Martyr 74 

St. Ignatius of Loyola 335 

St. Irenaeus 290 

St. Ischyrion 501 

St. Isidore 168 

J- 

St. James, Apostle 328 

St. James Bishop 308 

St. James of La Marca of Ancona. .476 

St. Jane Frances de Chantal 364 

St. Jane of Valois 79 

St. Januarius 402 

The Japanese Martyrs 81 

St. Jerome 415 

St. Jerome Emiliani 322 

St. John the Almoner 176 

St. John the Baptist 285 

St. John the Baptist, Beheading of. .374 

B. John of Britto 95 

St. John Cantius 436 

St. John Chrysostom 65 

St. John Climacus 161 

St. John of the Cross 472 

St. John of Egypt 158 

St. John, Evangelist 507 

St. John before the Latin Gate 213 

St. John Francis Regis 274 

St. John of God 126 

St. John Gualbert. 310 

St. John of Matha 85 

St. John Nepomucen 227 

St. John the Silent 223 

St. John of St. Facundus 268 

SS. John and Paul, Martyrs. ..... .288 

SS. Jonas, Barachisius, and their 

Companions 160 

St. Joseph 144 

St. Joseph Calasanctius 37 2 

St. Jude 443 

St. Julia 237 

St. Juliana Falconieri 277 

SS. Julian and Basilissa 40 



5 i6 



INDEX. 



St. Julius 1S0 

St. Justin 250 

St. Justina 410 

L. 

St. Ladislas 289 

St. Lambert 400 

St. Laurence, Martyr 348 

St. Laurence Giustiniani 385 

St. Laurence O'Tool 461 

St. Leander 112 

St. Leo the Great 179 

St. Leocadia 488 

St. Leonard 453 

St. Leonides 193 

St, Liberatus and others 357 

St. Louis, Bishop 360 

St. Louis, King 369 

St. Louis Bertrand 424 

St. Lucian 38 

St. Lucy 492 

St. Ludger 156 

St. Luke ' 434 

St. Lupicinus 113 

M. 

Maundy Thursday 17 

Most Holy Crown of Thorns 14 

Most Precious Blood 11 

Dedication of St. Mary ad Nives. . .342 

St. Macarius of Alexandria 31 

St. Magloire 439 

St. Malachi 449 

St. Mammertus 220 

St. Marcella 70 

St. Marcellinus 190 

St. Marcellinus, Pope 198 

St. Marcellus 445 

SS. Marcus and Marcellianus 276 

St. Margaret, Martyr 321 

B. Margaret Mary Alacoque 433 

St. Margaret of Scotland 266 

St. Mark, Evangelist 196 

St. Mark, Pope 422 

St. Martha 332 

St. Martin, Pope 458 

St. Martin of Tours .457 

The Martyrs of Alexandria 87 

The Martyrs of Japan 81 



i The Martyrs of Lyons 253 

I The Martyrs of Sebaste 128 

j The Martyrs of Saragossa 185 

! St. Mary of Egypt 175 

St. Mary Magdalen 324 

St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi. ...... .243 

St. Matthew 405 

1 St. Matthias 108 

St. Maud 134 

St. Maximus .475 

St. Medard 262 

St. Mello 438 

St. Mesmin 494 

St. Michael 414 

St. Michael, The Apparition of. . . .216 

St. Modestus 273 

St. Monica 211 

N. 

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin. 389 

St. Narcissus 444 

St. Nazarius and Celsus 331 

St. Nemesion 498 

St. Nicasius and his Companions. .493 

St. Nicholas of Bari 484 

St. Nicholas of Tolentino ....392 

St. Norbert 258 

O. 

St. Odo of Cluny 466 

St. Olympias 496 

St. Omer 391 

St. Onesimus 96 

St. Oswald 114 

P. 

Palm Sunday 15 

The Purification 75 

The Presentation of the Blessed 

Virgin 469 

St. Pachomius 224 

St. Palladius 301 

St. Pamphilus 251 

St. Pantaenus 302 

St. Pantaleon 33° 

St. Paphnutius 393 

St. Paschal Babylon 228 

St. Paternus 184 



INDEX. 



517 



St. Patrick . .138 

St. Paul 293 

St. Paul, The Conversion of 62 

St. Paul of the Cross 200 

St. Paul, the Hermit 48 

St. Paul, Martyr 288 

St. Paulinus of Nola 282 

St. Perpetuus 174 

St. Peter, Apostle 291 

St. Peter's Chains 336 

St. Peter's Chair at Antioch 104 

St. Peter's Chair at Rome 52 

St. Peter of Alcantara 435 

St. Peter of Alexandria 474 

St. Peter Celestine 231 

B. Peter Claver 392 

St. Peter Damian 105 

B. Peter Favre 347 

St. Peter of Luxemburg 299 

St. Peter, Martyr 202 

SS. Peter and Dionysia 226 

St. Petronilla 249 

St. Philip Benizi 366 

St. Philip Neri 241 

SS. Philip and James 205 

St. Philogonius 499 

St. Pius V 212 

St. Placid 420 

St. Polycarp 63 

St. Porphyry no 

St. Pothinus and other Martyrs of 

Lyons 253 

SS. Primus and Felicianus 263 

St. Prosper of Aquitaine 286 

Q. 

Quinquagesima Sunday 8 

St. Ouintin 446 

R. 

Relics, Feast of the Holy 455 

St. Radegundes 352 

St. Raymund Nonnatus 37S 

St. Raymund of Pennafort 59 

St. Remigius 416 

St. Richard of Chichester 167 

St. Robert. 260 

St. Rogatian 238 

St. Romanus 347 

SS. Romanus and Lupicinus 113 



St. Romuald 84 

St. Rose of Lima 376 

St. Rosalia 384 

S. 

The Seven Dolors of the Blessed 

Virgin 13 

St. Sabas 483 

St. Sabinus and his Companions. . .510 

St. Saturninus 477 

St. Scholastica 88 

St. Sebastian 55 

St. Seraphia 382 

St. Serenus 106 

St. Severianus 103 

St. Severinus 89 

St. Servulus 502 

St. Silverius 279 

St. Simeon 98 

St. Simeon Stylites ... 35 

St. Simon, Infant Martyr 152 

St. Simon Stock 315, 

SS. Simon and Jude 443, 

St. Simplicius 117 

St. Soter 192 

St. Stanislas, Bishop and Martyr . . . 214 

St. Stanislas Kostka 459 

St. Stephen, First Martyr 506 

St. Stephen, Finding of the Relics 

of 339 

St. Stephen, King 381 

St. Stephen, Pope 337 

St. Susanna 350 

St. Sylvester 511 

St. Symphorian 365 

T. 

The Transfiguration 343 

Trinity Sunday 25 

St. Tarachus and his Companions. .426 

St. Tarasius 109 

St. Teresa 431 

The Theban Legion 406 

St. Thecla 407 

St. Theodore Tyro 455 

St. Theodoret 438 

St. Theodosius 43 

St. Thomas, Apostle 500 

St. Thomas Aquinas 124 



INDEX. 



St. Thomas of Canterbury 509 

St. Thomas of Villanova 401 

SS. Thrasilla and Emiliana 504 

SS. Tiburtius and Susanna 350 

St. Timothy 60 

St. Titus • 34 

U. 

St. Ursula 437 

V. 

The Visitation 295 

St. Valentine. 93 

St. Valery 491 

St. Venantius 230 

St. Veronica . 46 

St. Victor 322 

St. Victorian and others 150 

St. Vincent 57 

.St. Vincent Ferrer 169 



St. Vincent of Paul 319 

St. Vitalis 201 

SS. Vitus, Crescentia, and Modes- 

tus 273 

W. 

Whit-Sunday 24 

St. Wenceslas 413 

St. Wilfrid 427 

St. William 42 

St. William of Monte-Vergine 287 

St. Willibrord 454 

St. Wulfran 146 

Y. 

St. Yvo 235 

Z. 

St. Zachary 136 

St. Zephyrinus 371 

St. Zita 199 



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Anderdon, W. H., D.D. AFTERNOONS WITH 
THE SAINTS. Author's American Edition. i8mo. 
182 pp. Cloth, 60c. Paper covers, 25c. 

■ ■ C A TH O L I (J CRUSO E. A d ventures of O wen 

Evans, navy surgeon's mate, set ashore on a desolate 
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$1. 

ANGELIC WARFARE, with cord of St. Thomas. 

Arnoudt, F., S.J. THE IMITATION OF THE 
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$2.50. 

I, en nan, Rev. Richard, A.M. A POPULAR LIFE 
of our Late Holy Father, POPE J'lUS IX, to- 
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dinals and Popes, views of famous Roman Sanctuaries, 
etc. Crown 8vo, 288 pp. ; cloth, gilt side, $1.50 ; cloth, 
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Boivden, H. S., of the Oratory. 31 INI A T UR E 
LIVES OF THE SAINTS, for every day in the 
year. Among the writers of these lives are Cardinal 
Manning, Bishop Hedley, Dr. Newman, F. Bridgett, 
C.SS.R., etc. 2 vols., cloth, $2. 

Burnett, P. H. THE PA TH which, led a Prot- 
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pp.,. cloth, $2. 

CANTATA CATHOLIC A. Containing a large col- 
lection of Masses, Vespers, Litanies, Hymns, etc., for 
the use of the Catholic Church. By B. H. F. Helle- 
busch. Oblong 4:0, 304 pp., half bound, $2.50. 

CA NTARI UM R OMA NUM. School Edition. 1 vol. , 
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CANL'A RIUM R03IANU3I. Edition for the Choir. 
1 vol., oblong 4to, 120 pp., $1.50. 

DEBATE ON THE ROMAN CATHOLIC RE- 
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Va., and Most Rev. John B. Purcell, Archbishop of Cin- 
cinnati. With Preface and Appendix. i2mo, 416 pp., 
$1.50. 

Dour/las, Lady Gertrude. LINKED LIVES. "A 
most enthralling story of fiction." — Weekly Register. 
This admirable book is admitted to be the best Catholic 
story that has been published in years. 1 vol., 526 pp., 
cloth, $2. 

EPISTLES AND GOSPELS for the Sundays and 
principal festivals throughout the yeai. 32mo, 169 pp., 
cloth, 30c. 

Gaunie, Mgr. CHRISTIAN CEMET ERY in the 
Nineteenth Century ; or, The Last War Cry of the 
Communists. From the French by Rev. R Brennan, 
A.M. With a Preface by Very Rev. Thos. S Preston, 
V.G. 1 vol., 254 pp., i2mo, Si. 50. 

Gilmour, Rt Rev. Richard. BIBLE HISTORY. 
Containing the most remarkable events of the Old and 
New Testaments. Beautifully illustrated with 140 wood- 
cuts and a map of the Holy Land. Over thirty Arch- 
bishops and Bishops of the United States have ap- 
proved of and highly recommended this English edition 
to the Catholic schools. i2mo, 352 pp., bound, 60c. 

Granada, Ven. Lewis de. MEMORIAL OF A 
CHRISTIAN LIFE. From the Spanish. Revised 
edition, with a Preface by a Dominican Father of New 
York. i6mo, cloth, 75c. 

Koninr/s, A., C.SS.R THEOLOGIA MORA LIS 
Novissimi Ecclesiai Doctoris S. Alphonsi, in 
Compendium redacta, et usui Venerabilis Cleri Ameri- 
cani accoinodata. 2 vols., royal 8vo, 556 pp., half mo- 
rocco, net, $6. The two vols, in one, half morocco, 
net, $5. When sent by mail the postage is 50 cents extra. 

Lamhinr/, Rev. A. A. THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
TEACHER'S MANUAL. " An admirable work, 
full of sound doctrine, judicious suggestions, and happy 
illustrations of the qualifications, responsibilities, etc., 
of Catechists." i6mo, 216 pp., cloth, 90c 

Lynch, Rev. J. S. M. THE RITE OF ORDINA- 
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Catholic Church for the conferring of the great Sacra- 
ment of Holy Orders ; in Latin for the use of Semina- 
rians, as well as a literal translation for the use of the 
Laity. i6mo, 108 pp., cloth, red edges, net, 75c. When 
sent by mail, 10 cents extra. 

Me Evilly , Most Rev. Dr., Bishop of Galway. AN 
EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPELS. Consist- 
ing of an Analysis of each Chapter, and of a Commen- 
tary, Critical, Exegetical, Doctrinal, and Moral. VoL I. 
Large 8vo, cloth, §4. 25. Second vol. in press. 

Muller, Michael, C.SS.R. GOD THE TEACHER 
OF MANKIND. A plain, comprehensive explanation 
of Christian Doctrine. Vol. I., " The Enemies of the 
Church," i2mo, 002 pp., cloth, $2. Vol. II., tf The 
Apostle's Creed " (in press). 

THE DEVOTION OF THE HOLY ROSA- 
RY. i2mo, 333 pp., cloth, inked side, frontispiece, 

-^1°THE PURGATORIAN CONSOLER. A 
Manual of Prayers and Devotional Exercises, originally 
prepared for the members of the Purgatorian Arch- 
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321110, 414 pp., cloth, 60c. 

PARADISE ON EARTH. (In press.) 



PICTORIAL LIVES OF THE SAINTS, with 

Reflections for every day in the year. With a Preface 
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Cloth, gilt side and. edges, $4.25. French morocco, gilt 
edges, #5.50. Sold only by subscription. 
POP UL A R H YM NS FOR YO UTH . W ith Devo- 
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its kind, containing 189 of the most popular hymns and 
references to the various music books in which the airs 
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ROSARY BOOK. Containing instructions on the 
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THE HIDDEN TREASURE; or, The Value and 
Excellence of the Holy Mass. With a practical and 
devout method of hearing it with profit. By the 
Blessed Leonard of Port Maurice. i8mo, 188 pp., 
cloth, 50c. 

Purcell, Most Rev. J. B., D.D., Archbishop of Cincin- 
nati. 31 AR III AGE AND FA 3IILY DUTIES 
IN GENERAL. A pastoral letter. A new edition. 

2imo, 25c. 

Smith, Rev. S. B., D.D., EL E31ENTS OF ECCLE- 
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useful work, clear, plain and learned. It supplies a 
great want " (Bishop Dwenger). 8vo, 464 pp., cloth, net, 
$3. WheJi sent by mail, 30 cents extra. 

Van Luytelaar, Rev. J., C.SS.R. FIDEI ET 310- 
R U3I F UND A 31 EN TA . Seu Instru ctio Brevis pro 
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Vercruysse, Rev. Bruno, S.J. NEW PRACTICAL 
31 EDI TA TI ONS FOR EVERY DAY in the 
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3IETHOD OF HEARING 31 ASS ; or, Pious 

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WAY OF THE CROSS. According to the method 
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WA Y OF THE CROSS, THE HOLY. By St 
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